Labor Books in Review: a 2013 Round-up

by Stuart Elliott

As the  year nears an end, it’s a good time for summing up and making lists. We thought  our readers might interested in a wrap=-up of books that  we reviewed  in Talking Union over the last year.  We stretched things a bit by including books discussed in the last  half of 2012.   As we looked over the list, we felt that there were a few 2013 books that also deserved to be mentioned in this post although the haven’t ‘been reviewed on Talking Union yet. We’ll start with these and follow, after the break, with the labor books reviewed on Talking Union.

If you order through the links to the unionized Powell’s books, a portion of your purchase will benefit DSA and Talking Union.

If we have missed a book feel free to add it in the comments section.

Not Yet Reviewed

Andrew Levison,  The White Working Class Today

William  P. Jones, The March on Washington

David Cogswell, Illustrated by C.M. Butzer Unions for Beginners

Steve Early, Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress

Kari Lydersen,  Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99%

Reviewed  in  Talking  Union

Randy Shaw,  Activist Handbook

Reviewed by Steve Early  New Book Offers Training Manual for Winning Social Change

Barbara Garson,  Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession,

Reviewed by Jane Slaughter   book review and video

David Bacon, The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration

Reviewed by Duane Campbell, How U.S. Policy Drives Mexican Migration

George Packer,The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America 

Reviewed by Michael Hirsch, Capitalism Gone Wild

Kristian Williams, William Munger and Lara Messersmith-Glavin (editors),  Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency
Matt Apuzzo & Adam Goldman,  Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and Bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America

Reviewed by Michael  Hirsch,Coin of the Realm: Sprawling Police State Brings the Wars Home

Firefox OS: What it is – and what it means for you and your union

Diane Ravitch,  Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Americas Public Schools 

Reviewed by Deborah Meier,  Diane Ravitch’s Important New Book on Eduction

Eric Larson, Jobs With Justice: 25 Years, 25 Voices 

Reviewed by Steve Early JWJ at 25: A “New Idea” From 1980s Still Alive & Kicking Today

Bruce Neuberger, Lettuce Wars: Ten Years of Work and Struggle in the Fields of California
Frank Bardacke,Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers
Miriam Pawel, The Union of Their Dreams

Reviewed by Bennett Baumer  Three Books on the United Farm Workers
Reviewed by Marc  Norton Lettuce Wars…

Penny Lewis, Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks: The Vietnam Antiwar Movement as Myth and Memory

Reviewed by Michael  Hirsch Hardhats for Peace: A Review

Jane McAlevey Raising Expectations

Talking Union featured Sarah Jaffe’s interview with Jane McAlevey. Joe Burns’ review of McAlevey’s book can be found here. Steve Early’s review of McAlevey’s book can be found here. McAlevey’s response to Early can be found here. And Jerome Burns  reviewed the reviews.

Greg Shotwell’s Autoworkers Under The Gun: A Shop-Floor View of the End of the American Dream

Reviewed by Steve Early  A Voice From The Shop Floor

Bill Fletcher,  Jr. , “They’re Bankrupting Us!”: And 20 Other Myths about Unions,

Reviewed  by Jamie Sanderson Exciting book exposes myths about union

Donald Barlett and James Steele, The Betrayal of the America Dream

Reviewed  by Amy Dean The Betrayal of America’s Middle Class Was a Choice, Not an Accident

 Chris Rhomberg The Broken Table: The Detroit Newspaper Strike and the State of American Labor

Reviewed by Steve Early, The Broken Table: Tale of A Newspaper Strike That Didn’t End Happily (Like Newsies)

Eileen Boris,  Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State

Reviewed by Steve Early  Will Home-Based Unionism Survive? Caring for America

Jeff Faux,  The Servant Economy: Where America’s Elite is Sending the Middle Class

Discussed by Tula Connell  Are We Headed Toward A Servant Economy?