A History Of America In Ten Strikes

Erik Loomis gives us a well written brief history of working women and men uniting to improve their working conditions and their personal lives against the background of a general narrative of US history at large. His main argument is that unions only succeed when they represent the interests of large numbers of workers, and also by electing political officials who will support those interests through legislation. Today unions in the private sector represent only a small fraction of working people, and even in government where about one in three workers are represented by a union, the handwriting appears to be on the wall: right to work laws and the end of automatic union dues will undermine these private sector unions as well. Hard times ahead for unions and the people they represent. So why write a book about the history of union strikes? Loomis says that "these early strikes should serve as an inspiration today, showing us that our ancestors, much like us, faced a rapidly changing world by seeking justice for their brothers and sisters." (28) My only quibble with the book is that the author doesn't mention the fact that strikes can also be fun for working people. In 1979 as a dockworker and Teamster I walked the strike picket line in Elk Grove, California. We walked for two hours in shifts, and then retired to one of our Teamster brother's RV for cold beer and baseball on the television. We won a wage and benefits increase. Nice work if you can get it!

Very well-written and well-researched account of the history of the labor movement and the United States. A good read for anyone who is interested in what's happened and where the U.S. is going.

I recieved this book as a gift & enjoyed it so much that I bought one for a friend. It's as informative as it is well written.

Like many Americans, I don't have a deep knowledge of labor history in this country. I hoped this book might be an unbiased record of events, as it was advertised. This assumption was dashed in the first few pages, where we're told "Under a capitalist economy, like the United States, employers profit by working their employees as hard as they can for as many hours as possible and for as little pay as they can get away with. Their goal is to exploit us." I can only wonder what the University of Rhode Island (the author's employer) might feel about this opinion. Granted, the focus on ten strikes openly suggests that this book will carry a pro-union bias. I expected this. But I didn't expect it to be as heavy-handed, vitriolic, and unrepentant as it was, or that it would blatantly promote Democratic policies and politicians, culminating in a conclusion that the Democratic Party "... is our best chance at turning a political party into an instrument of workers' rights," and whining that Bernie Sanders didn't win the 2016 presidential election. I was raised in a pro-union, left-leaning family living in an industrial section of the Midwest, but even I know that there are generally two sides to any story. Unfortunately, this story only tells one side of the labor story, and suffers for it.

A country’s history can focus on many things because the pageant of a country can be glimpsed through many facets. The labor movement of our country is part of our social and economic history and “A History of America In Ten Strikes” uses the ultimate labor weapon to reflect that history. The first strike is the 1834 Lowell (Massachusetts) Mill Girls strike against the textile manufacturers that resulted in reducing the work week to sixty-nine hours. The second is the rolling strike of slaves who stopped working for their masters during the Civil War. Third is a series of Gilded Age strikes for an eight-hour-day. Next is the anthracite coal strike that saw the first Presidential intervention, that of Theodore Roosevelt, to attempt to bring labor peace in contrast to the traditional government support of management. Fifth was the Bread and Roses Strike organized by the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) in 1912. Sixth is the Flint Sit-Down Strike against GM in 1936 and 1937 and the advent of the New Deal in government encouragement of labor unions. Seventh is the Oakland General Strike of 1946, coming in the wake of World War II. Next is Lordstown, Ohio Strike against GM set against the backdrop of a chasm opening between the union leaders and their membership. Ninth is the Air Traffic Controllers of 1981 the highlighted the rise of public sector unions and finally the rise of the Service Employees International Union and the struggle of low wage earners. This book clearly has an agenda of arguing for the interests of workers. In a sense this is a revisionist history in that it attempts to substitute the myth that progress came from the workers’ struggle for the myth of the rising tide lifting all boats. Even readers who do not identify with this agenda should stop and think where their forebearers stood in relation to the events chronicled on these pages. Author Erik Loomis uses each strike as a core of a chapter describing a phase in the evolution of labor-management relations and the broader socio-economic environment. He also examines the contest within labor between those striving for tangible, measured improvements in the lives of the workers and those seeking to force fundamental revolution. The author lays his card on the table early when he asserts “In Donald Trump, we face the most racist and misogynistic president in a century (maybe since Woodrow Wilson?, comment mine) who has demonstrated his utter contempt for the Constitution and the values that have made the United States the best it can be, (Wilson again?) even if it was never great for many of its citizens.” So, he does not like Trump but with language like that we can see that we are in for a biased narrative. My suspicion is also aroused when I catch historical errors. On page 42 we read that “Tennessean Andrew Johnson ascended to the Oval Office”, an office that was not constructed until the administration of William Howard Taft, 40 years after Johnson left office. I wonder how many other “facts” are not so. Shortcomings notwithstanding history is not told only though presidents and wars. Cultural, religious, scientific and business, of which labor history is a part, also shape the nation we are today. Those who think that American history is a saga of injustice and oppression will find justification in this book. Those who think otherwise would benefit from taking a look from the other side for a more well-rounded appreciation of the American Pageant.