Daniel J Clark
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042010
- eISBN:
- 9780252050756
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042010.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
It is conventional wisdom that because of lucrative contracts negotiated by the United Auto Workers (UAW) under Walter Reuther's leadership, most autoworkers in the U.S. enjoyed steady work, ...
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It is conventional wisdom that because of lucrative contracts negotiated by the United Auto Workers (UAW) under Walter Reuther's leadership, most autoworkers in the U.S. enjoyed steady work, increasing wages, and improved benefits in the postwar boom following World War II. In short, autoworkers entered the middle class. In contrast, this book argues that for Detroit autoworkers there was no postwar boom. Instead, the years from 1945 to 1960 were dominated by job instability and economic insecurity. This argument is based largely on oral history interviews and research in local newspapers, which covered the auto industry extensively. Conditions were worse for African Americans and white women, but almost all autoworkers experienced precarious, often dire circumstances. Recessions, automation, decentralization, and the collapse of independent automakers in Detroit are part of the story, but materials shortages, steel, coal, and copper strikes, parts supplier strikes, wildcat strikes, overproduction (especially in 1955), hot weather, cold weather, plant explosions, age, race, and gender workplace discrimination, and the inability of autoworkers to afford new cars contributed to instability and insecurity. Hardly anyone in the 1950s—whether ordinary autoworkers, union leaders, auto company executives, business analysts, or local shopkeepers—thought that the decade was marked by steady work, improving wages, or anything resembling predictable income for autoworkers.Less
It is conventional wisdom that because of lucrative contracts negotiated by the United Auto Workers (UAW) under Walter Reuther's leadership, most autoworkers in the U.S. enjoyed steady work, increasing wages, and improved benefits in the postwar boom following World War II. In short, autoworkers entered the middle class. In contrast, this book argues that for Detroit autoworkers there was no postwar boom. Instead, the years from 1945 to 1960 were dominated by job instability and economic insecurity. This argument is based largely on oral history interviews and research in local newspapers, which covered the auto industry extensively. Conditions were worse for African Americans and white women, but almost all autoworkers experienced precarious, often dire circumstances. Recessions, automation, decentralization, and the collapse of independent automakers in Detroit are part of the story, but materials shortages, steel, coal, and copper strikes, parts supplier strikes, wildcat strikes, overproduction (especially in 1955), hot weather, cold weather, plant explosions, age, race, and gender workplace discrimination, and the inability of autoworkers to afford new cars contributed to instability and insecurity. Hardly anyone in the 1950s—whether ordinary autoworkers, union leaders, auto company executives, business analysts, or local shopkeepers—thought that the decade was marked by steady work, improving wages, or anything resembling predictable income for autoworkers.
Richard T. Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042065
- eISBN:
- 9780252050800
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042065.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised ...
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The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.Less
The first edition of Myths America Lives By explores five Great American Myths—the Chosen Nation, Nature’s Nation, the Christian Nation, the Millennial Nation, and the Innocent Nation. This revised edition introduces a sixth myth—the myth of White Supremacy—and argues, first, that the myth of white supremacy is the primal American myth that informs all the others and, second, that one of the chief functions of the other five myths is to protect and obscure the myth of white supremacy, to hide it from our awareness, and to assure us that we remain innocent after all. With one chapter devoted to each of the myths, the book relies especially on the voices of black Americans to help readers understand the pervasive power of white supremacy in American life and culture and how white supremacy translates into systemic racism, on the one hand, and white privilege, on the other. The book also explores how manifest destiny, the American dream, and capitalism have depended on the Great American Myths for their viability in American culture.
Sophie Richter-Devroe
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041860
- eISBN:
- 9780252050558
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041860.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
What does doing politics mean in a context of occupation, settler-colonialism, and prolonged state violence such as Palestine? This book traces Palestinian women’s forms of political activism, ...
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What does doing politics mean in a context of occupation, settler-colonialism, and prolonged state violence such as Palestine? This book traces Palestinian women’s forms of political activism, ranging from peacebuilding and popular resistance to their everyday survival and coping strategies.
Over the last decades, the Israeli occupation has tightened its grip on Palestinian life; settler-colonial violence against Palestinians has risen, and Palestine is more fragmented—politically, socially and spatially—than ever. For most Palestinians, neither the official liberal peace agenda nor the liberationist resistance paradigm offers promising solutions to unlock the status quo of political paralysis in Palestine today. Instead, they simply try to get by and struggle through quotidian, small-scale, informal efforts to establish a livable environment for themselves and their loved ones. Women play a major role in these micro politics.
The ethnographically grounded analysis in this book focuses on the intricate dynamics of daily life in Palestine, tracing the emergent politics that women practice and articulate there. Rather than being guided by larger categories, such as party politics, social movements, or binaries between the public and the private, it zeroes in on women’s own, often complex and ambiguous, everyday politics. Shedding light on contemporary gendered political culture and alternative “politics from below” in the region, the books invites a rethinking of the functionings, shapes, and boundaries of the political.Less
What does doing politics mean in a context of occupation, settler-colonialism, and prolonged state violence such as Palestine? This book traces Palestinian women’s forms of political activism, ranging from peacebuilding and popular resistance to their everyday survival and coping strategies.
Over the last decades, the Israeli occupation has tightened its grip on Palestinian life; settler-colonial violence against Palestinians has risen, and Palestine is more fragmented—politically, socially and spatially—than ever. For most Palestinians, neither the official liberal peace agenda nor the liberationist resistance paradigm offers promising solutions to unlock the status quo of political paralysis in Palestine today. Instead, they simply try to get by and struggle through quotidian, small-scale, informal efforts to establish a livable environment for themselves and their loved ones. Women play a major role in these micro politics.
The ethnographically grounded analysis in this book focuses on the intricate dynamics of daily life in Palestine, tracing the emergent politics that women practice and articulate there. Rather than being guided by larger categories, such as party politics, social movements, or binaries between the public and the private, it zeroes in on women’s own, often complex and ambiguous, everyday politics. Shedding light on contemporary gendered political culture and alternative “politics from below” in the region, the books invites a rethinking of the functionings, shapes, and boundaries of the political.
