Stayin' Alive

The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class

By: Jefferson R. Cowie

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

A wide-ranging cultural and political history that will forever redefine a misunderstood decade, Stayin' Alive is prize-winning historian Jefferson Cowie's remarkable account of how working-class America hit the rocks in the political and economic upheavals of the 1970s.

In this edgy and incisive book - part political intrigue, part labor history, with large doses of American music, film, and television lore - Cowie, with "an ear for the power and poetry of vernacular speech" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), reveals America's fascinating path from rising incomes and optimism of the New Deal to the widening economic inequalities and dampened expectations of the present.

©2010 Jefferson Cowie (P)2018 Tantor

Critic reviews

"So fresh, fertile, and real...establishes its author as one of our most commanding interpreters of American experience." (Rick Perlstein, The Nation)

Essential reading for understanding the 1970s

Insightful and surprisingly thorough.

The first half covers a series of flashpoint labor struggles and strikes which are laid out magnificently to highlight the diversity of motivations, goals, tactics, etc. of different struggles - providing an amazing array of compare-and-contrast opportunities without being overly academic or losing the engaging narratives of each struggle.

The second half provides a much broader overview of 1970s culture, economics, and politics - which while slightly less narratively engaging, serves as a phenomenal overview of era.

The most popular book of the era that I'm aware of are Rick Perlstein's series detailing the political regimes of Nixon (Nixonland), Ford & Carter (The Invisible Bridge), and the rise of Ronald Regan (Reganland). While Rick Perlstein's series exclusively focus on the political aspects of the era while highlighting various big personalities, this book instead focused more broadly on the debates of the era (during the second half of the book). Overall, the two books make great companion pieces to those who wish to understand the era.

Lots of insight

The first part was more dry--politics and unions, but it set the stage for showing how popular media (movies and music) related to the Blue collar worker. I really enjoyed learning about what was going on when I was too young to understand.

History Grad...

This was really long, but that's typical for an academic book.
The narrative was good though.

Interesting but unorganized

I know very little about labor history, so everything in this book was new to me. it was generally well-paced and fairly neutral for a book that you know is going to skew pro-labor from the title. I thought the examinations of class issues in pop culture were very interesting, but there were so many that it almost seemed like reading two separate books and made it harder to follow the chronology. Worth a read if it sounds interesting to you, but it won't completely blow you away.

Masterpiece. Compelling social and cultural history

Stunning prose, great storytelling and sense-making. A journey through 70s history and culture (film, music, television) through the lens of labor. Prescient and passionate. Like taking a time machine back 50+ years with the insights of the future (presages 2016-2020 though written in 2012). Brilliant.

Couldn’t get past “rank and file”

The book may have had good content, but I really could not get into it. The overuse of the expression “rank and file” was so distracting. Listening to the book became only an anxious anticipation of the next time “rank and file” would be used and I couldn’t pay attention to the content. Without a better editor, unfortunately this book has been reduced to an educational drinking game. I’m sorry I couldn’t get past that.