Labor Wars

Sensational tales of true-life crime, the devastation of the Irish potato famine, the upheaval of the Civil War, and the turbulent emergence of the American labor movement are connected in a captivating exploration of the roots of the Molly Maguires. A secret society of peasant assassins in Ireland that re-emerged in Pennsylvania’s hard-coal region, the Mollies organized strikes, murdered mine bosses, and fought the Civil War draft. Their shadowy 12-year duel with all powerful coal companies marked the beginning of class warfare in America.

St. Louis' Bloody Labor Dispute On Saturday, May 5, 1900 at 11:30 p.m., the bombing of the Suburban Line at the Wabash and Sarah Street railroad crossing marked the beginning of the St. Louis Street Car Strike of 1900. Before the strike was over, the streets of St. Louis were a battle ground between rich and poor. Read the graphic details about this explosive time.

On a spring morning in 1914, members of the United Mine Workers of America clashed with guards employed by the Rockefeller family, and a state militia beholden to Colorado's industrial barons. When the dust settled, nineteen men, women, and children among the miners' families lay dead. The strikers had killed at least thirty men, destroyed six mines, and laid waste to two company towns. Killing for Coal offers a bold and original perspective on the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the "Great Coalfield War."

Soon after the birth of Mickey Mouse, one animator raised the Disney Studio far beyond Walt's expectations. That animator also led a union war that almost destroyed it. Art Babbitt animated for the Disney studio throughout the 1930s and through 1941, years in which he and Walt were jointly driven to elevate animation as an art form, up through Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia.

Once America's "arsenal of democracy," Detroit is now the symbol of the American urban crisis. In this reappraisal of America's racial and economic inequalities, Thomas Sugrue asks why Detroit and other industrial cities have become the sites of persistent racialized poverty. He challenges the conventional wisdom that urban decline is the product of the social programs and racial fissures of the 1960s. 

Labor's War at Home examines a critical period in American politics and labor history, beginning with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 through the wave of major industrial strikes that followed the war and accompanied the reconversion to a peacetime economy. Nelson Lichtenstein is concerned both with the internal organizations and social dynamics of the labor movement - especially the Congress of Industrial Organizations - and with the relationship between the CIO, as well as other bodies of organized labor, and the Roosevelt administration.

A powerful memoir of medicine, identity, and family secrets from an esteemed ob-gyn as she unravels her grandmother’s mysterious death while reimagining women’s health care from a mobile clinic—for readers of The Beauty in Breaking and The In-Between. In Labor: One Woman’s Work, Dr. Mary...

The 1930s are the darkest days of the Great Depression. Factories are closing their doors, millions of people are out of work, men are riding the rails searching for elusive jobs that seldom exist, and a thriving way of life that has been cherished is disappearing. Desperate people are doing desperate things just to survive, while labor strikes and veterans’ protests are turning violent. Roving gangs of outlaws have become celebrities to many people, who asked themselves why a man robbing a bank with a gun is any worse than a banker in a suit stealing someone’s life savings, home, or ...

Based upon detailed research and observation of social customs in many regions, here is a notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves, using theatrical performance as a framework. This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others...

From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration...

From Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and Shutter Island, comes the paperback edition of The Given Day, an unflinching family epic that captures the political unrest of a nation caught between a well-patterned past and an unpredictable future. This beautifully...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2017 #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘The best political book of the year’ Andrew Marr ‘A superb work of storytelling and reporting. Sets new benchmark for the writing of contemporary political history’ Guardian The only book to tell the full story of how and...

From the ashes of Viking invasions to the sun setting on the world’s largest empire, this is the untold story of Britain’s rise and fall. What you’re about to discover will change how you see one of history’s most powerful forces. The British Empire did not simply happen — it was built, fought for, contested, and ultimately undone by the same forces that created it. Spanning from Alfred the Great’s desperate stand against the Vikings to the transformation into today’s Commonwealth, this book takes you inside the struggles, triumphs, and tragedies that shaped centuries of ...

Bloomsbury presents Solidarity: The Work of Recognition by Dr. Rowan Williams, read by Niall Lucas. Celebrated thinker Rowan Williams explores the shared burdens and hopes that make solidarity possible. From its use as a rallying cry by the labour movement to its central place in struggles for...

In this enlightening personal account, one man tells the story of his groundbreaking project to sleep in former slave dwellings—revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America. "Thought-provoking." —New York Times Since founding the...

Two starred reviews! In her “brilliant” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)first book for young readers, New York Times bestselling author and New York magazine writer-at-large Rebecca Traister draws material from her award-winning books and articles to show girls their anger has the power to...

A historian’s guide to understanding Reconstruction and the lessons it offers for navigating our own fraught political moment In the wake of a shocking presidential election, historian Kellie Carter Jackson came to a simple but powerful realization: We have stood at a similar crossroads before...

From London’s inimitable mayor, Boris Johnson, the story of how Churchill’s eccentric genius shaped not only his world but our own. On the fiftieth anniversary of Churchill’s death, Boris Johnson celebrates the singular brilliance of one of the most important leaders of the twentieth...

For more than 200 years, the question of free trade has been considered settled by economists. However, advancements in technology have considerably changed the world since David Ricardo popularized the concept of Comparative Advantage in the early 19th century, and the rise of economic populism around the world is increasingly calling long-held assumptions into question. On the Question of Free Trade is a public debate between Dr. James D. Miller, Associate Professor of Economics at Smith College, and Vox Day, the author of The Return of the Great Depression, in which they address the ...

This program is read by the author with a foreword written and read by Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl. "An irresistibly readable and humane exploration of the barbarities of class...readers are gifted that most precious of things in these muddled times: a clear lens through which to see the world."...