Segmented Labor, Fractured Politics: Labor Politics in American Life (Springer Studies in Work and Industry) - Hardcover

Form, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306450313 ISBN 13: 9780306450310

Publisher: Springer, 1995

Synopsis

My curiosity and concern about the working class in America stems from childhood memories of my father, a cabinetmaker, and of my oldest brother, an autoworker, who were passionately involved in the labor movement. Perhaps because they so wanted the working class to achieve greater social and economic justice and because they insisted it was not happening, I became curious to know the reasons why. Without even being aware of it, I began to explore a possible explanation―the internal diver­ sity of the working class. In my studies of autoworkers (the prototype proletarians) in the United States, Italy, Argentina, and India, I discovered that they seemed to be more divided economically, socially, and politically in the more eco­ nomically advanced countries―an idea that ran contrary to the evolution­ ary predictions of my Marxist friends. When I reported this in Blue-Collar Stratification (1976), I was surprised that some of them who were commit­ ted to an ideology of working-class solidarity attacked the hypothesis because it ran against their convictions.

About this title

Review

`Offers the most wide-ranging and comprehensive sociological account of contemporary labor politics to appear in the last two decades... will be read and appreciated by students of labor and politics and... men and women who now preside over the American labor movement.'
Contemporary Sociology

`Well-researched and well-written volume... This insightful analysis of unions and politics is highly recommended for students and scholars in sociology, political science, labor history, and industrial relations.'
Choice

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306450313
• ISBN 13: 9780306450310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 398