Confronting American labor : the New Left dilemma / Jeffrey W. Coker.

ISBN:

9780826263575

9780826214201

Title:

Confronting American labor : the New Left dilemma / Jeffrey W. Coker.

Author:

Coker, Jeffrey W.

Personal Author:

Coker, Jeffrey W.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 211 pages)

Contents:

Labor and the search for American socialism -- The exceptionalism of American labor -- The intellectual's role in the workers' movement -- Abandonment of the "labor metaphysic" -- The promise of insurgent labor -- New lefts, new insurgents -- The new labor history and the revival of the proletariat -- The historian's search for power.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Labor movement -- United States -- History.

Socialism -- United States.

New Left -- United States -- History.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2002

Publication Information:

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Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
331.80973 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Confronting American Labor traces the development of the American left, from the Depression era through the Cold War, by examining four representative intellectuals who grappled with the difficult question of labor's role in society. Since the time of Marx, leftists have raised over and over the question of how an intelligentsia might participate in a movement carried out by the working class. Their modus operandi was to champion those who suffered injustice at the hands of the powerful. From the late nineteenth through much of the twentieth century, this meant a focus on the industrial worker. The Great Depression was a time of remarkable consensus among leftist intellectuals, who often interpreted worker militancy as the harbinger of impending radical change. While most Americans waited out the crisis, listening to the assurances of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Marxian left was convinced that the crisis was systemic. Intellectuals who came of age during the Depression developed the view that the labor movement in America was to be the organizing base for a proletariat. Moreover, many came from working-class backgrounds that contributed to their support of labor.

Author Notes

Jeffrey W. Coker is Assistant Professor of History at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

This is an interesting study of four scholars--Seymour Martin Lipset, C. Wright Mills, Sidney Lens, and Herbert Gutman. The link between the four, argues Coker (Belmont Univ.), is their disillusionment with the labor movement after WW II. All regarded organized labor as moving from its radical roots in the 1930s to a more pragmatic stance in the 1950s. With the exception of Lipset, who abandoned his radicalism early in his academic career, the others attempted to find new outlets for political activism. Coker asserts that Lens, Mills, and Gutman regarded the university, with its privileges and student population, as a good base to launch a "New Left." Mills, who died in 1962, did not see the advent of the radicalism of the late 1960s, and only Lens was an active participant in the antiwar movement. Coker's attempt to explain the "New Left" through these scholars is often convoluted and strained; particularly his account of Gutman, with his assertion that the former labor historian attempted a search "for power" by attempting to re-create a new radicalism through biased scholarship. Summing Up: Optional. Graduate students and faculty. D. R. Turner Davis and Elkins College

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: Consensus and Fragmentation: An Overview of the Left and the Problem of the Proletariat	p. 1
Part I Seymour Martin Lipset
1 Labor and the Search for American Socialism	p. 25
2 The Exceptionalism of American Labor	p. 45
Part II C. Wright Mills
3 The Intellectual's Role in the Workers' Movement	p. 65
4 Abandonment of the "Labor Metaphysic"	p. 84
Part III Sidney Lens
5 The Promise of Insurgent Labor	p. 103
6 New Lefts, New Insurgents	p. 121
Part IV Herbert Gutman
7 The New Labor History and the Revival of the Proletariat	p. 143
8 The Historians' Search for Power	p. 165
Postscript	p. 183
Bibliography	p. 189
Index	p. 203

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Table of Contents