A History of America in Ten Strikes

September 10, 2018
This partisan account covers 200 years of American labor history, from the start of the industrial revolution to the depleted state of contemporary unions, for readers who are pro-union and opposed to the capitalist class. Loomis, a labor historian, offers clear narratives about the 10 strikes of the title, emphasizing the pivotal role of women in the labor movement and instances when government acted as an honest broker between labor and management. He also doesn’t flinch when describing the less savory sides of the American labor movement, making it clear that racism has been a divisive force that has prevented worker movements from reaching their full potential in collective bargaining and left vast parts of the country, particularly the deep South, underrepresented in national labor actions. Loomis finds some cause for hope in a wave of immigrant union activists who will carry forward what is left of the labor movement. The introduction and conclusion make sweeping and value-laden claims (“We have a hierarchical society that has used propaganda to get Americans to believe everyone is equal”) without providing even footnoted argumentation to support them; this will fail to convince, if not alienate, readers who aren’t already familiar with the evidence or aligned with Loomis’s views. But those who agree with Loomis about the economic facts of American life will find this book illuminating and inspiring.

September 15, 2018
This concise history, seen through the lens of 10 labor strikes from the nineteenth century on, uses those encounters between capitalists and workers to tell a broader and very sad story. Heading each chapter with what amounts to a moral lesson elucidated by each labor action, Loomis, an unabashed progressive, provides an edifying look at the abuse of power in America that, at times, is evocative of Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States (1980). Along the way, Loomis offers sections that underscore the critical roles played by women and by blacks (though his section on emancipation stretches his thesis) and other minorities, radicals, and common laborers. The recurring motif is the role of government as an intervening force between management and labor, usually, and decisively, in favor of the former. The role of Ronald Reagan in crushing the air-controllers' strike, Loomis argues forcefully, is critical to the precipitous decline, even virtual disappearance, of labor unions. The recent Justice for Janitors movement is one of the few bright spots in a long-dismal picture. Loomis provides a useful appendix that encapsulates 150 moments in labor history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 15, 2018
A fresh history of American labor and the strikes that resulted from companies' mistreatment of workers.In each chapter, labor historian Loomis (History/Univ. of Rhode Island; Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe, 2015, etc.) discusses the specifics of a strike followed by a section of context about the broader issues in American society undergirding the unrest. The author begins with the women laborers in the mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, who fought terrible factory conditions, during strikes in 1834 and 1836. Refreshingly, Loomis includes the resistance of African-American slaves as a labor-management issue, a topic that constitutes the second chapter. "By walking away from the plantations," writes the author, "withholding their labor from masters who increasingly could not control them, the slaves undermined the southern economy and morales." Loomis continues chronologically, ending with the rise of service-worker unions starting in the 1980s, groups that consisted mostly of blacks, Latinos, and new immigrants. Many of them labored in restaurants and hotels, but the movement sometimes went by the catchy name of "Justice for Janitors." Some theories of government state that those elected to exercise power should protect the exploited. The author generally agrees, but he also explains how both federal and state governments almost always side with employers, usually to the detriment of employees. In the modern era of strikes, President Ronald Reagan smashed the union of air-traffic controllers, who actually served as his own employees. The anti-union fervor of Reagan and others has meant a precipitous decline in organized labor unions in numerous industries, leading to deepening wage inequality, job insecurity, and social unrest. Each chapter of this well-told saga could stand on its own, and the author broadens the value of this primer/well-documented advocacy tract with an appendix that briefly describes 150 significant moments in American labor history.Successfully avoiding academic-ese, Loomis delivers a jargon-free, clearly written history.

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