Donna T. Haverty-Stacke and Daniel J. Walkowitz, Rethinking U.S. Labor History: Essays on Working Class Experience, 1756-2009.

Patmore, Greg

Donna T. Haverty-Stacke and Daniel J. Walkowitz, Rethinking U.S. Labor History: Essays on Working Class Experience, 1756-2009 (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010). pp. 337. $39.95 paper.

This excellent set of essays is an effort to chronicle the current state of US labour history and set an agenda. As with labour history everywhere it is healthy to continually adjust the field of labour history to take account of broader changes in society and the economy. Given the state of the US labour movement and the dominance of neo-liberalism, a major theme in the book is to look outside the traditional preoccupation with organised labour and examine new frontiers such as military labour, strike-breakers and care workers and even questioning the meaning of productive labour.

The book is divided into three sections. The first chronicles the diversity of current research in the USA. Peter Way traces the life of a British soldier during the Seven Years War in North America, reminding us that soldiers were waged labour and their important role as "part of international labour history" (p. 26) in creating colonial empires for the British, the French and other imperial powers. Theresa Case examines the role of strike-breakers in the 1886 Great Southwest Railway Strike. Elizabeth Fones-Wolf and Ken Fones-Wolf examine the role of religion, with a focus on white working class Protestants, in both hindering and helping the Congress of Industrial Organisation's Operation Dixie, which tried to organise the post-war South. By contrast Steve Rosswurm explores the role of a Catholic priest in a fight against Communists within the Waterbury, Connecticut International Union of Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers. While Australian readers are familiar with the role of the Catholic Church in the split of the Australian Labor Party in 1955, Rosswurm notes a lack of interest by US labour historians in religion generally and Catholicism in particular (p. 169). While this is an excellent account of the role of a particular Catholic priest, it would be interesting to have said more about the international context of the Catholic attitude to Communism, particularly the impact of the Spanish Civil War. While two essays focus on religion, Eric Arensen reviews the issue of race and particularly the attitude of the US Communist Party towards African-Americans. He focuses on a speech by A. Philip Randolph, the highly regarded African-American leader of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Conductors, to the National Negro Congress in April 1940 condemning Communists as a vehicle to explore US Communist Party policy towards racism.

Three particularly notable papers in the first section are those by Stromquist, Boris and Klein, and McCartin. Stromquist takes a comparative and transnational approach to look at the early years of working class local politics in Brisbane (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand) and Milwaukee (USA). He notes that while municipal politics "provided a dynamic arena in which labor activists tested their mettle and honed their message," they were "well aware that their efforts formed part of a broader international movement of municipal activists" (p. 99). Boris and Klein focus on the organising challenges of low-paid home care workers, who depended on government welfare policy for funding and were not recognised as workers but as independent contractors. This paper looks at the politics of consumption as well as the politics of production noting that the carers were joined by the clients for their services in agitating for improved wages and conditions. Generally the collection has overlooked the politics of consumption where workers seek to control consumption through consumer co-operatives for example or consumers agitate to assist workers. McCartin's chapter on the history of labour organising in the USA from 1968-2005 is particularly useful for both teachers and researchers of US trade unions. While McCartin does chart the decline of US trade unions in terms of density, he also explores the turning away of US workers from the strike weapon particularly during the period from 1979 to 1983. He notes a number of explanatory factors including deregulation, the globalisation of trade and privatisation. He argues that proposed favourable changes to US labour law for trade unions are insufficient unless negative implications for union organising from broader issues such as deregulation are addressed.

There are three essays in the second section of book which explore the "new directions." Daniel Bender calls for the coming together of cultural historians and labour historians through an examination of the history of senses. He shocks readers by highlighting a perception that the working classes "stink" and "they emitted strange odours" that "repulsed social reformers, factory investigators, welfare officials, and slummers" (p. 244). Physical repulsion "was the most insurmountable of social boundaries" (p. 244). Faue argues that a gendered approach to labour requires a continued push of the subject beyond the workplace. She highlights working class and labour biography as shedding light "not only on individual paths to political capitalism and social mobility but also on the origins of class feeling and class consciousness" (p. 278). Schwartz-Weinstein poses the need for labour historians to continually re-evaluate what is meant by work, highlighting recent decisions by the US National Labor Relations to remove nurses and postgraduates working at universities from the definition of labour.

The final section of the book focuses on resources for labour historians. There is a timeline of major events on US labour history. There is also a guide to archives, journals, online sources and professional organisations in the USA.

Overall, this excellent book highlights the ability of labour historians to maintain their long-standing concerns with social equity and justice, but also recognise the changing world around them. Declining union membership and changing definitions of work highlight the continued need to broaden the focus of the field. The book is a valuable resource for researchers and teachers both in the USA and beyond.

GREG PATMORE

The University of Sydney