A History of America in Ten Strikes
Written by Erik Loomis
Narrated by Brian Troxell
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018
Named one of the “5 Books About Famous Strikes That Demonstrated the Historical Importance of Civil Disobedience” by Bustle
“Loomis refuses to romanticize this period or the labor movement it produced. . . . What Loomis’s book perhaps does best is remind us that the promise of the labor movement, despite its many failures and compromises, has always been to make everyday life more democratic.”
—The New Republic
A thrilling and timely account of ten moments in history when labor challenged the very nature of power in America, by the author called “a brilliant historian” by The Progressive magazine
Powerful and accessible, A History of America in Ten Strikes challenges all of our contemporary assumptions around labor, unions, and American workers. In this brilliant book, labor historian Erik Loomis recounts ten critical workers’ strikes in American labor history that everyone needs to know about (and then provides an annotated list of the 150 most important moments in American labor history in the appendix). From the Lowell Mill Girls strike in the 1830s to Justice for Janitors in 1990, these labor uprisings do not just reflect the times in which they occurred, but speak directly to the present moment.
For example, we often think that Lincoln ended slavery by proclaiming the slaves emancipated, but Loomis shows that they freed themselves during the Civil War by simply withdrawing their labor. He shows how the hopes and aspirations of a generation were made into demands at a GM plant in Lordstown in 1972. And he takes us to the forests of the Pacific Northwest in the early nineteenth century where the radical organizers known as the Wobblies made their biggest inroads against the power of bosses. But there were also moments when the movement was crushed by corporations and the government; Loomis helps us understand the present perilous condition of American workers and draws lessons from both the victories and defeats of the past.
In crystalline narratives, labor historian Erik Loomis lifts the curtain on workers’ struggles, giving us a fresh perspective on American history from the boots up.
Strikes include:
Lowell Mill Girls Strike (Massachusetts, 1830–40)
Slaves on Strike (The Confederacy, 1861–65)
The Eight-Hour Day Strikes (Chicago, 1886)
The Anthracite Strike (Pennsylvania, 1902)
The Bread and Roses Strike (Massachusetts, 1912)
The Flint Sit-Down Strike (Michigan, 1937)
The Oakland General Strike (California, 1946)
Lordstown (Ohio, 1972)
Air Traffic Controllers (1981)
Justice for Janitors (Los Angeles, 1990)
Erik Loomis
Erik Loomis is an assistant professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns, and Money on labor and environmental issues past and present. His work has also appeared in AlterNet, Truthout, and Salon. The author of Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe (The New Press) and Empire of Timber: Labor Unions and the Pacific Northwest Forests (Cambridge University Press), he lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Related to A History of America in Ten Strikes
Related audiobooks
A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Monopolies Suck: 7 Ways Big Corporations Rule Your Life and How to Take Back Control Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism-American Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?: A Story of Women and Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We're Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freedom From the Market: America's Fight to Liberate Itself from the Grip of the Invisible Hand Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wobblies: The History of the Industrial Workers of the World in the Early 20th Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute ExecutivesWhite Collar Criminals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Labor and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Policing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Politics For You
The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prince Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A History of America in Ten Strikes
45 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Interesting and moving takes off workers who were pushed to their limits (in most cases) and decided to strike. The strikes are all given context so you know the general history of the time period. A good book of social and socialist history.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Do you want to be depressed and hopeless about the state of labour for the next week? If you answered yes, this is the book for you. 10 Strikes clearly and factually lays out the history of labour relations throughout American history, in a no punches pulled way. It makes it clear that police and the government are no friend to the worker, and never have been. It does however have a few issues: it treats anarchism as a fringe belief and down plays its importance to labour history, it promotes voting as much more important than it is, and it advocates that capitalism does not need to be replaced to ensure true free labour. Besides these issues, it is extremely informative and I've enjoyed it immensely.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Erik Loomis has written an informative history of labor strikes in the United States. Contrary to its title, the book is more a history of the U.S. labor movement than a more comprehensive history of America as perceived through the perspective of workers. Nonetheless, Loomis informs readers of an important and often neglected aspect of American history. Readers will learn of the violence, racism, and sexism that has permeated American society and labor from the country’s start. Loomis describes in detail the roles of government, employers, and workers in the history of labor in the United States. This is a book to be read by those interested in American history, politics, social movements, business, and labor. Those wanting a deeper understanding of current events and conflicts within American society will also find this book an informative read.