Reuther: A Daughter Strikes

This is a biography-cum-autobiography. It is about the late Walter Reuther, a man of vision in the American labor movement, president of the United Automobile Workers of America and of the CIO at the time of its merger with the AFL. It is also about what it meant to grow up as his daughter in a home full of love and commitment, meeting great people and witnessing critical events, but surrounded by guards and high fences which were meant to protect the family against recurring threats on Reuther's life. Dickmeyer's anecdotes are often fascinating. However, she does not provide a systematic or analytical biography of Reuther nor is she more than superficially informed about the union context or the times. Even when she was present at momentous events, or heard of them from her parents, her perspective was that of a child or adolescent, and she does not reexamine the past as an historian or even as a daughter now better informed about her father's career. Dickmeyer's book will appeal to those interested in the price children sometimes pay for parents' dedication to public service and to those who want to supplement scholarly biographies with a daughter's eye view. It may also be of interest to some teenagers. -- From Independent Publisher