There is power in a union : the epic story of labor in America

From the nineteenth-century textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, to the triumph of unions in the twentieth century and their waning influence today, the contest between labor and capital for the American bounty has shaped our national experience. In this stirring new history, Philip Dray shows us the vital accomplishments of organized labor and illuminates its central role in our social, political, economic, and cultural evolution. His epic, character-driven narrative not only restores to our collective memory the indelible story of American labor, it also demonstrates the importance of the fight for fairness and economic democracy, and why that effort remains so urgent today. "This book is a history of American labor from the dawn of the industrial age to the present day. From the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, the first real factories in America, to the triumph of unions in the twentieth-century and their waning influence today, the contest between labor and capital for their share of American bounty has shaped our national experience. Here the author's ambition is to show the vital accomplishments of organized labor in that time and illuminate its central role in our social, political, economic, and cultural evolution. This is an epic character-driven narrative that locates this struggle for security and dignity in all its various settings on picket lines and in union halls, jails, assembly lines, corporate boardrooms, the courts, the halls of Congress, and the White House. Here the author demonstrates the urgency of the fight for fairness and economic democracy in a struggle that remains especially urgent today when ordinary Americans are so anxious and beset by economic woes"--Publisher's description From an award-winning historian, a stirring (and timely) narrative history of American labor from the dawn of the industrial age to the present day