Synopses & Reviews
From the nineteenth-century textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, to the triumph of unions in the twentieth century and their waning influence today, the contest between labor and capital for the American bounty has shaped our national experience.
In this stirring new history, Philip Dray shows us the vital accomplishments of organized labor and illuminates its central role in our social, political, economic, and cultural evolution. His epic, character-driven narrative not only restores to our collective memory the indelible story of American labor, it also demonstrates the importance of the fight for fairness and economic democracy, and why that effort remains so urgent today.
Review
“Spectacular....Dray’s chronicle reads like a novel, filled with dramatic acts of barbarism and bravery.” Maureen Corrigan’s Favorite Books of the Year, Fresh Air, NPR
Review
“Philip Dray’s big and bold history of organized labor in America splendidly retells a story — or a multitude of stories — badly in need of retelling. The labor movement’s decline in recent decades has accompanied a great national amnesia about all that the movement achieved for the nation. That amnesia threatens those achievements, so Dray’s book is timely as well as gripping.” Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy
Review
“One of the great values of this beautifully written book is that it shows the centrality of labor and working-class organizations to America itself....Dray comes into the ring with fists flying, and he doesn’t let up for a moment. If you love Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States you’ll probably love Dray’s history, too.” San Francisco Chronicle
About the Author
Philip Dray is the author of At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His book Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen was a New York Times Notable Book and received the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.