In this episode of Coming From Left Field, we feature author J. Albert Mann discussing her nonfiction book, “Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States,” and why honest labor history for young people is both urgently needed and systematically suppressed. Mann explains that she wrote the book for middle- and high-school readers using accessible language, drawing heavily on left labor historians such as Philip Foner and on Labor’s Untold Story, to create an easily readable narrative that places working-class struggle at the center of U.S. history rather than at the margins.

She talks about the “pyramid of oppression” as a core concept: capitalism maintains power by dividing workers—by race, gender, nationality, citizenship status, and other “bricks in the wall”—so people fight each other instead of the capital–labor relationship that actually determines their conditions. Mann emphasizes that this strategy appears across history, from feudalism through the Gilded Age’s violent strike-breaking (including private armies like the Pinkertons, who at one point employed more armed men than the U.S. Army) to current right-wing media’s focus on scapegoats like welfare recipients and trans youth.

The conversation walks through major episodes from the book—indentured servitude, the first Gilded Age, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the Palmer Raids and Red Scare, the destruction of the IWW, the New Deal and CIO era, wars and the rise of the military-industrial complex, and into today’s gig economy and AI—always stressing that labor history is “working-class history” and should be understood inside the broader political and economic context, not as isolated heroic tales. Mann criticizes how children’s literature usually presents labor as decontextualized, hero-centered vignettes (often returning to “safe” events like Triangle where adults can pretend the problem was solved) while largely erasing radical moments such as Haymarket and the deeper role of communists and left organizers.

She also recounts the book’s fraught publication: HarperCollins (owned by Rupert Murdoch) bought the manuscript, then, after legal review, fired her union-editor Stephanie Gordon and tried to kill the book, only relenting after contract pressure—one in-house lawyer reportedly said, “It’s labor. It’ll bury itself.” Mann argues that this reaction, and the near-total failure of contemporary unions to use books like hers as organizing tools for youth, underscores how threatening serious labor education remains to capital, and how essential it is for any future movement that hopes to confront gig work, privatization, and growing inequality

J. Albert Mann is an award winning author of fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults, with a focus on working class history, disability, and social justice. She has written six children’s books and has published short stories and poems in Highlights for Children, where she has received both the Highlights Fiction Award and the Highlights Editor’s Choice Award. Mann holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Her work is shaped by her own experience with disability and by years of disability rights activism, including involvement in the “We Need Diverse Books” movement pushing for disabled protagonists and histories in youth publishing.

Resources:

Order the book: https://kingsbookstore.com/book/9780063273481

Webpage: https://jalbertmann.com/

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

#laborhistory# ShiftHappens# J.AlbertMann#unions# workingclass# classstruggle# pyramidofoppression# capitalism# GildedAge# Pinkertons# Haymarket# TriangleShirtwaistfire# RedScare# CIO# PhilipFoner# Labor’sUntoldStory# youthorganizing# laboreducation# gigeconomy# AIandwork# RupertMurdoch# HarperCollins# publishingpolitics# leftpolitics# socialism# solidarity# strikehistory# U.S.history#PatCummings #PatrickCummings #GregGodels #ZZBlog #ComingFromLeftField #Podcast #zzblog #mltoday

Caroline Fraser joins the Coming From Left Field podcast to discuss "Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers," her genre-bending blend of true crime, environmental muckraking, and personal memoir about growing up near Tacoma’s Asarco smelter in the heyday of Ted Bundy and other Pacific Northwest serial killers. Drawing on research about lead and arsenic exposure, brain science, and corporate archives, Fraser argues that heavy metal poisoning, especially from smelters and leaded gasoline, helped shape an era of unprecedented violent crime, while corporations and regulators concealed what they knew to protect profits.

The conversation ranges from the company town politics of Ruston and Kellogg, Idaho, to bankruptcy scams that left taxpayers with Superfund bills, to gendered effects of lead on male and female brains, and the cultural fascination with serial killers. Along the way, Fraser and the hosts connect Murderland to earlier work like Prairie Fires, to Frank Herbert’s Dune as an industrial-ecological parable rooted in Tacoma, and to today’s fights over toxic redevelopment and AI-era data centers, which repeat the same jobs-versus-health trade-offs.

Caroline Fraser is an American nonfiction writer and literary critic best known for her Pulitzer Prize–winning biography “Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” Born in Seattle to a Christian Science family, she graduated from Mercer Island High School and later earned a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Harvard University, writing her dissertation on the poet James Merrill.

Fraser previously worked on the editorial staff of The New Yorker and has written for publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, Outside Magazine, and the London Review of Books. She is the author of several major nonfiction books: “God’s Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church,” a critical history and memoir about Christian Science; “Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution,” on global conservation; “Prairie Fires,” which won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize and 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography;

Resources:

Order the book: https://kingsbookstore.com/book/9780593657225

Webpage: https://www.carolinefraser.net/

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

#murderland#CarolineFraser#environmentaljustice#leadpoisoning#serialkillers#arseniccontamination#Asarcosmelter#RustonWashington#TacomaWashington#BunkerHillKelloggIdaho#corporatecrime#latecapitalism#structuralviolence#brainscienceandcrime#frontallobedamage#leadandviolentcrime#Superfundsites#DuneFrankHerbert#LauraIngallsWilder#TedBundy#GaryRidgway#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#Podcast#zzblog#mltoday

In this episode, we sit down with sociologist and author Dr. Charles Derber to dig into his new book, “Fighting Oligarchy: How Positive Populism Can Reclaim America.” At a moment when most Americans feel one paycheck away from disaster and both major parties seem unable—or unwilling—to confront corporate power, Derber offers a clear, historically grounded argument for why Trump’s far‑right populism has been so successful and why it keeps enshrining the very corporate establishment it claims to oppose. He traces a long U.S. history of “phony” right‑wing populism, from the Confederacy and the Klan to America First and MAGA, and contrasts it with a largely forgotten tradition of democratic, left populism rooted in the 1890s People’s Party, New Deal‑era worker organizing, and movements that linked economic justice to civil rights and peace. Rather than treating populism as a dirty word, Derber insists it is an inevitable response to deep economic crisis; the question is whether it will be channeled into racist authoritarianism or into a broad, multiracial movement that targets oligarchic capitalism itself.

Over the course of the conversation, we unpack Derber’s notion of “positive populism”: a politics that names the oligarchy directly, connects everyday economic pain to structural corporate power, and pushes for something closer to Northern European–style social democracy—strong unions, universal healthcare, and a state that actually intervenes on behalf of ordinary people. Derber argues that simply “going back to normal” or reviving centrist neoliberalism is a trap that will only prepare the ground for the next Trump, because it leaves intact a system most people already know is rigged. Instead, he lays out core principles of resistance and democratic renewal designed to build a sustainable, caring U.S. democracy capable of confronting climate breakdown, militarism, and corporate rule.

This is a conversation for anyone wrestling with how to fight the oligarchy without falling for fake anti‑establishment politics—and how to rebuild a politics of solidarity in a society that has been deliberately fragmented. ​

Charles Derber is a professor of sociology at Boston College and a longtime analyst of capitalism, corporate power, and U.S. political regimes. The author of more than thirty books for general and academic audiences, his works include “Sociopathic Society, Corporation Nation, Bonfire: American Sociocide,” and now “Fighting Oligarchy: How Positive Populism Can Reclaim America.” His research and public writing focus on the intertwined crises of global capitalism, militarism, climate change, and the overwhelming power of multinational corporations, as well as the social movements that might transform them. Derber has been described as a leading critical voice on “corpocracy” and the erosion of democracy, and he advocates for broad, bottom‑up movements that can reclaim economic and political life from oligarchic control.

Resources:

Order the book: https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Oligarchy-Universalizing-Resistance-Charles/dp/1041119976/

Webpage: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/morrissey/departments/sociology/people/faculty-directory/charles-derber.html

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

#fightingoligary#howpositivepopulismcanreclaimAmerica#positivepopulism#progressivepopulism#leftpopulism#rightwingpopulism#trumpismexplained#americanoligarchy#usdemocracycrisis#capitalismcritique#corporatepower#workingclasspolitics#americanfascism#bostoncollegesociologist#unionsandlabormovement#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

This episode centers on a conversation with sociologists Dr. Nicholas Wolfinger and Dr. Matthew McKeever about their book “Thanks for Nothing: The Economics of Single Motherhood since 1980” and what it reveals about poverty, race, and U.S. policy. The hosts discuss the core puzzle: even after four decades of gains in women’s education and employment, single-mother families are still about five times more likely to be poor than two-parent families, just as they were in 1980.

The guests revisit the 1965 Moynihan Report on the “Negro Family,” how it got tangled up with Oscar Lewis’s “culture of poverty” thesis, and how both were weaponized in the culture wars. Wolfinger and McKeever stress that Moynihan’s actual policy prescriptions were economic—jobs programs and large-scale public investment in Black communities—not moral lectures, but that critics (and later conservatives) recast his work as an attack on Black family culture. They trace a longer state preoccupation with “the family,” from Civil War–era pensions for Union widows and anxieties over divorce in Teddy Roosevelt’s day to the backlash against desegregation and the way Brown v. Board rerouted structural segregation into school fights rather than housing policy.

The conversation then turns to single motherhood as an economic condition rather than a moral category. The guests emphasize a simple but often ignored fact: one-earner families have fewer resources than two-earner families, and the majority of people in single-parent families are children. They dismantle the “deserving vs. undeserving poor” narrative that paints single mothers as irresponsible, sexually reckless, or “choosing” poverty, arguing instead that policy has systematically stripped support from families at the bottom while rewarding a subset of working poor through mechanisms like the Earned Income Tax Credit. Programs such as the EITC, they note, do get cash to low-income workers, but they also deepen inequality within the population of single mothers by boosting those who can maintain steady employment while leaving the least advantaged further behind.

A recurring theme is the “fundamental attribution error:” the human tendency to attribute hardship to bad character instead of bad circumstances. The hosts use this to frame how conservative pundits like Ann Coulter talk about single mothers—blaming “promiscuity” and “choices” rather than the collapse of secure jobs, stagnant wages, and the cost of housing and childcare. Wolfinger and McKeever acknowledge that culture, neighborhood effects, and even heritable personality traits can play some role in intergenerational disadvantages, but they insist that the levers governments can actually pull are economic: wages, unions, transfers, and public goods like childcare and schooling.

Nicholas H. Wolfinger is a professor of sociology at the University of Utah, specializing in family demography, marriage and divorce, and social inequality.

Matthew McKeever is Professor of Sociology and Department Chair at Haverford. Prior to that, he was at Mount Holyoke College, Rice University, University of Houston, University of Kentucky, and Yale University.

Resources:

Order the book: https://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Nothing-Economics-Single-Motherhood/dp/0199324328

Dr. Wolfinger webpage: http://www.nicholaswolfinger.com/

Dr. McKeever’s webpage: https://www.haverford.edu/users/mmckeever

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

#NicholasWolfinger#MatthewMcKeever#ThanksforNothing#singlemotherhood#economicsofsinglemotherhood#singlemothersandpoverty#childpoverty#familypolicy#MoynihanReport#cultureofpoverty#welfarereform#EarnedIncomeTaxCredit#childallowance#basicincome#neoliberalism#Reaganomics#BillClintonwelfarereform#unionsandwages#labormovement#genderandwork# #raceandclass#singleparentfamilies#singlemoms#publicpolicy#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

Toby Manning joins the Coming From Left Field Podcast to discuss his book, “Mixing Pop and Politics: A Marxist History of Popular Music,” a sweeping, theory-driven history of commercial popular music from the 1950s to today.

Dr. Manning traces how popular music doesn’t float above politics but is shaped by – and responds to – capitalism, class struggle, race, empire, and changing economic regimes from Fordism/New Deal social democracy to neoliberalism and austerity.

Rather than a narrow history of “protest songs,” he reads big-selling hits and major genres (rock and roll, Motown, soul, reggae, punk, post-punk, hip-hop, grunge, electronic dance music, contemporary pop) as expressions of dominant ideology, resistance, and contradiction inside a profit-driven culture industry. Drawing on Marxist concepts such as alienation, ideology, and dialectics, he shows how music both reflects the world and helps people imagine alternatives.

Toby Manning is a British writer, journalist, critic, and educator based in London. He describes himself as a “professional music geek.” Dr. Manning was born and grew up in North Wales and lived in various parts of the UK before settling in London. He holds a PhD in English and Creative Writing from The Open University, completed in 2015, and much of his later work has developed from his doctoral research. He has written for major UK music and cultural publications such as NME, Q, Mojo, The Word, The Guardian, The Quietus, New Statesman, Red Pepper, and The Big Issue. He has also contributed to journals and essay collections, including work on The Velvet Underground and Talking Heads.

Resources:

Order the book: https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Pop-Politics-Marxist-History/dp/1913462676

Twitter/X: @TobyManning

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TobyLManning/

Spotify Playlists:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6SzgjiHOtNowpny0zqkixQ?si=a0f8a7ad38f642a2

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7As7CSf79iXtQ6p8SCNODL?si=e2bebc6ec514442d

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0mki0qN9TeIxiTn8kfZH1Z?si=923e5c9ee6154dc7

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Greg’s Article on Coltrane: https://mltoday.com/coltrane-s-revolutionary-musical-journey/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

mixingpopandpolitics#marxisthistoryofpopularmusic#tobymanning#popmusicandcapitalism#marxismandmusic#historyofrockandroll#punkandpolitics#hiphopandclass#popularmusicideology#fordismandculture#neoliberalismandmusic#protestmusic#musicandsocialchange#musicandalienation#politicalmusichistory#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

In this intergenerational dialogue, we welcome writer A.J. Horn, a remarkable young Marxist-Leninist scholar.

We discuss the enduring legacy of the great intellectual, Michael Parenti, who passed away a month ago. We examine what made Parenti’s work—such as his classic “Blackshirts and Reds”—so powerful: his unwavering class analysis, his clear and principled writing, and his ability to trace society's deepest problems back to capitalism and exploitation. Our conversation highlights how Parenti’s approach cuts through the noise of mainstream media and liberal academia, offering a tool for understanding the world that remains as vital as ever.

The discussion then turns to the state of the left today, contrasting the red-baiting fears of past generations with the more open, progressive attitudes of A.J.’s peers. He shares his unique intellectual journey from dystopian novels to the works of Marx and Lenin and details his current projects in writing and organizing.

This episode is a fascinating look at how foundational ideas are passed on and adapted, celebrating Greg’s political activism and legacy with the US communist party while spotlighting the passion and clarity of a compelling new voice on the left.

A.J. Horn describes himself as a Marxist-Leninist dedicated to helping readers better understand socialism and communism by simplifying complex concepts. He identifies as a writer whose primary goal is to educate and mobilize the public against capitalism, liberalism, fascism, and other reactionary movements.

A.J.’s Resources:

Substack: https://substack.com/@ajhornwrites

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SimplifyingSocialism/shorts

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/simplifyingsocialism.substack.com

Newsletter: https://simplifyingsocialism.beehiiv.com/

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

A.J.Horn#AJHorn#MichaelParenti#BlackShirtsandReds#Politicaltheory#ClassAnalysis#MarxistLeninist#Mediacriticism#Organizing#Substackauthor#1984GeorgeOrwell#Dystopianliterature#Socialism#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday

In this podcast episode, we interview Dr. Andy Lee Roth, a sociologist, media scholar, and editor known for his leadership role in the media watchdog group Project Censored. The discussion centers on their latest publication, State of the Free Press 2026, which marks the project's 50th anniversary of highlighting the year's most vital yet underreported news stories. Dr. Roth explains how corporate media systematically censors or distorts critical information and delves into specific examples from the book, including U.S. immigration authorities monitoring social media critics and tech giants like Facebook conducting mass takedowns of content at a government's request.

The conversation broadens to examine the precarious state of press freedom, touching on the decline of local newspapers, the threat of AI-powered misinformation, and the chilling effect of widespread surveillance. While acknowledging these serious challenges, the podcast also strikes a note of cautious optimism, celebrating the rise of a robust independent media landscape and the enduring importance of critical media literacy. Dr. Roth makes a compelling case for supporting non-corporate journalism as an essential tool for defending democracy and an informed public.

Andy Lee Roth is the associate director of Project Censored, a nonprofit media watchdog organization. He coordinates the Campus Affiliates Program, a network of students and faculty at colleges and universities across North America who research and identify the top "censored" news stories. He earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of California–Los Angeles and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Haverford College.

Resources:

Order the book: https://www.project-censored.org/shop/p/state-of-the-free-press-2026

Project Censored Website: https://www.project-censored.org/

Beyond Fact-Checking: A Teaching Guide to the Power of News Frames: https://www.projectcensored.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Beyond-Fact-Checking-web.pdf

Movement Media Alliance: https://movement-media.org/

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/

AndyLeeRoth#AndyRoth#MickeyHuff#ShealeighVoitl#StateoftheFreePress2026#ProjectCensord#FreePress2026#AI#algorithms#SocialMedia#MediaBias#Censorship#FirstAmendment#ICEsurveillance#socialmediamonitoring##AlgorithmicLiteracy#AlanMacleod#KevinGosztola#RobertMcChesney#Censorshipbyproxy#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#ComingFromLeftFieldPodcast#zzblog#mltoday