The decline of the American union movement--and how it can revive, by a leading analyst of labor

Union membership in the United States has fallen below 11 percent, the lowest rate since before the New Deal. Labor activist and scholar of the American labor movement Stanley Aronowitz argues that the movement as we have known it for the last 100 years is effectively dead. And he explains how this death has been a long time coming--the organizing and political principles adopted by US unions at mid-century have taken a terrible toll. In the 1950s, Aronowitz was a factory...

The book contains groundbreaking and immersive essays on crucial 20th Century scholars on social theory, discussed and analyzed from a radical, critical theory perspective. Aronowitz provides his unique and lauded critical eye toward the leading thinkers of our age, crafting an immersive set of essays on radical thought.

This study of the American working class traces its historical development from post-Civil War times and shows why radical movements have failed to overcome the forces that tend to divide groups of workers from one another. The rise of US labour unions is also analyzed.

First published in 1987. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.