The State and Labor in Modern America - Softcover

Dubofsky, Melvyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080782125X ISBN 13: 9780807821251

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994

Synopsis

In this important new book, Melvyn Dubofsky traces the relationship between the American labor movement and the federal government from the 1870s until the present. His is the only book to focus specifically on the 'labor question' as a lens through which to view more clearly the basic political, economic, and social forces that have divided citizens throughout the industrial era. Many scholars contend that the state has acted to suppress trade union autonomy and democracy, as well as rank-and-file militancy, in the interest of social stability and conclude that the law has rendered unions the servants of capital and the state. In contrast, Dubofsky argues that the relationship between the state and labor is far more complex and that workers and their unions have gained from positive state intervention at particular junctures in American history. He focuses on six such periods when, in varying combinations, popular politics, administrative policy formation, and union influence on the legislative and executive branches operated to promote stability by furthering the interests of workers and their organizations.

About this title

About the Author

Melvyn Dubofsky, Distinguished Professor of History and Sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, is author of several books, including John L. Lewis: A Biography and We Shall Be All: A History of the IWW.

Reviews

In this work, Dubofsky (history and sociology, SUNY at Binghamton) is trying to avoid many of the current paths of labor scholarship. Instead of investigating labor internally, he looks at the ways labor and capital have interacted with the various branches of government since Reconstruction. In studying the tangible labor policies of the state, he analyzes the influence of the different regions on one another, considering, for instance, the effect of congressional representatives from the South on New England's manufacturing workers. He also reveals that the use of troops against unions was often not court ordered but frequently decreed by the executive branch and supported by Congress. Dubofsky's footnotes and bibliography are, as usual, magnificent; when he ignores an event or aspect of a subject, the reader feels sure that he is aware of his actions. Recommended for all academic libraries.
Clay Williams, Bluefield State Coll. Lib., W. Va.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080782125X
• ISBN 13: 9780807821251
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 342