Knocking on Labor's Door - (Justice, Power, and Politics) by Lane Windham (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The power of unions in workers' lives and in the American political system has declined dramatically since the 1970s. In recent years, many have argued that the crisis took root when unions stopped reaching out to workers and workers turned away from unions. But here Lane Windham tells a different story. Highlighting the integral, often-overlooked contributions of women, people of color, young workers, and southerners, Windham reveals how in the 1970s workers combined old working-class tools -- like unions and labor law -- with legislative gains from the civil and women's rights movements to help shore up their prospects. Through close-up studies of workers' campaigns in shipbuilding, textiles, retail, and service, Windham overturns widely held myths about labor's decline, showing instead how employers united to manipulate weak labor law and quash a new wave of worker organizing.

Recounting how employees attempted to unionize against overwhelming odds, Knocking on Labor's Door dramatically refashions the narrative of working-class struggle during a crucial decade and shakes up current debates about labor's future. Windham's story inspires both hope and indignation, and will become a must-read in labor, civil rights, and women's history.

Review Quotes

"Provides sharp insight into the nature and depth of the problems we now face in trying to provide income and health care for the many rather than continuing to funnel society's wealth to the obscenely rich few who dominate the country and the global economy."--American Historical Review

"The book does a brilliant job of explaining the USA's unique industrial relations framework, shaped so much by the NLRB election process and the privatized nature of health care and social security."--Labour History Project Bulletin

"The book marks yet another superb monograph from a fresh cohort of labor historians who challenge pessimistic narratives of organized labor's decline with inspiring studies of a diverse array of workers."--The Journal of Southern History

"Windham is one of those rare academics who has worked professionally as an organizer, and the intellectual advantage that this experience has provided is hard to overstate."--Gabriel Winant, The Nation