A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis

Feb 08, 2019 Bill Kerwin rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonficion, 21st-c-amer, history, labor

If the name “Erik Loomis” sounds familiar, that may be because you have read him in the politically progressive blog “Lawyers, Guns & Money” under the headings “Erik Visits a Grave" (410 entries to date) and “This Day in Labor History," in which he introduces his readers to such memorable events as the Creation of the Colored Farmer’s Alliance (1886), the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), the Hard Hat Riot (1970), and the Kader Toy Fire (1993).

Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode
If the name “Erik Loomis” sounds familiar, that may be because you have read him in the politically progressive blog “Lawyers, Guns & Money” under the headings “Erik Visits a Grave" (410 entries to date) and “This Day in Labor History," in which he introduces his readers to such memorable events as the Creation of the Colored Farmer’s Alliance (1886), the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), the Hard Hat Riot (1970), and the Kader Toy Fire (1993).

Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island, knows his labor history, and, in A History of America in Ten Strikes he has found an effective vehicle to convey this often neglected subject to the average reader. Loomis chooses ten “strikes” in ten different periods, each of which exemplifies a different theme. He chronicles the events leading up to it and stemming from it, and then underlines its importance in the development of the labor movement. Although the narrative can be a dry at times (since—by the nature of the labor struggle—it customarily deals with collective action, not individual heroics), it is studded with illuminating anecdotes and brightened with notable names.

In “The Lowell Mill Girls” (1830’s), Loomis shows us how workers, often female textile workers, struggled from the first against a new industrial system they did not yet understand. Then our author moves on to consider “Slaves on Strike,” and how what we usually think as slaves abandoning their plantations during the Civil War was in effect a labor action, a protest that not only paralyzed the South but also brought about the end of slavery. Loomis goes on to write about the “Eight-Hour-Day Strikes," how, in the Gilded Age, the Knights of Labor’s aggressive push and the hysteria that followed the Haymarket Bombing (1886) led to owner reprisals and a virtual war between capital and labor. By way of contrast, he then demonstrates, in “The Anthracite Strike” (1902), how the rare action of a progressive elected official on the side of a union—in this case by president Theodore Roosevelt in support of the coal miners—could tip the scales in the favor of workers' rights.

Loomis then shows us how a new radical movement led by the IWW (the "Wobblies") shaped the nature of “The Bread and Roses Strike” in the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile mills in 1912, and how they succeeded through an expert use of propaganda:

With the strikers destitute, the IWW thought to place worker’s children with sympathizers in different cities. This spread the Lawrence workers' cause. On February 10th, 119 children boarded a train to New York dressed in their rags, with their name, age, address, and nationality pinned to them . . . They all found families when they arrived, as five thousand socialists met them at the train station to celebrate their arrival.

Although the Wobblies’ uncompromising radicalism—and their promotion of violent “direct action”—never brought about the worker’s revolution they hoped for, the slow, steady growth of the union movement and the election of important Democratic allies in government led to significant union gains by 1940. Loomis sees the crucial event of this period to be “The Flint Sit-Down Strike” (1937). In this action, not only the GM workers, but their wives played a part:

A women's auxiliary formed to support the workers, bringing them food, clean clothing, newspapers and other items to help them spend the long nights inside the plant. Genora Johnson, a mother of two and the wife of one of the strike leaders, took the microphone and urged the women of Flint to stand up (or sit down!) to GM and fight for the men inside. She shouted, “We will form a line around the men, and if the police want to fire then, they’ll just have to fire into us.”

Wages had bee been artificially frozen throughout WWII, and the demand for increased wages eventually led to a wave of post-war labor actions, which Loomis illustrates here in his treatment of “The Oakland General Strike.”

For two days, Oakland shut down. Despite the cold December rain, over 1000,000 workers participated . . . All businesses except for pharmacies and food markets, which the workers deemed essential for the city, closed. Bars could stay open but could only serve beer and had to put their jukeboxes outtside and allow for their free use. Couples literally danced in the streets . . . Workers allowed children to visit Santa in front of a department store to give their Christmas wishes. Recently returned war veterans created squadrons to prepare for battle against the police.

Labor made wage gains throughout the postwar years, but eventually a new generation of workers began to agitate for a change in dehumanizing working conditions. For Loomis, the crucial event in this phase of the struggle was the “Lordstown” strike (1972) in Youngstown, Ohio. (Equal treatment for women and minorities was also an important theme during this period, and Loomis does a good job of treating these issues too.)

Unfortunately, the ‘80’s brought with it the ascendancy of the Republican party and its deliberate attempt to break the back of unions. The crucial event in this phase, according to Loomis, was “The Air Traffic Controllers Strike” (1981) when Ronald Reagan fired all the strikers who refused to return to work, thereby crushing a powerful public sector union and setting the tone for years to come. Private sector unions as a force in the U.S. have now been virtually neutered, and what remains of the public sector unions—teachers, firefighters, police—are continually subject to attack. The only bright spot in union growth now lies in the organizing of minority and immigrant labor in low wage service industries, which Loomis sees exemplified in the rise of the SEIU (The Service Employees International Union) and the “Justice for Janitors” movement in 1990’s in L.A.

America’s history of labor in ten strikes. It is an account of painful gains through more than a century, followed by a forty-year decline. Loomis, although not optimistic, is still hopeful that Americans will listen to the lessons of history and continue to fight:

We came very far in the struggles of workers in the two centuries before today. In the past four decades, we have given back much of our freedom. Only through our combined struggle to demand the fruits of our labor can we regain our lost freedoms and expand those freedoms into a better life for all Americans.

...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Joseph Spuckler rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis is a study of American history told through the labor movement. Loomis is an assistant professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns, and Money on labor and environmental issues past and present. His work has also appeared in AlterNet, Truthout, and Salon.

History is long, and memory is short. Three generations ago organized labor and collective bargaining were celebrated and credited with the growth of the A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis is a study of American history told through the labor movement. Loomis is an assistant professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns, and Money on labor and environmental issues past and present. His work has also appeared in AlterNet, Truthout, and Salon.

History is long, and memory is short. Three generations ago organized labor and collective bargaining were celebrated and credited with the growth of the middle class. Living wages and the benefit of buying American made goods drove the popularity of unions. Today unions are generally demonized and blamed for sending jobs overseas. Earlier unions were identified with early twentieth-century communism. On the Waterfront (1954) left moviegoers cheering for Brando as the dock workers banded together. Workers once united could negotiate for fair wages and benefits. Organization made workers something more than replaceable cogs in the machine.

In examining strikes in their context of history Loomis demonstrates the validity of certain strikes and the rise and fall of unions in America. Two strikes that I recall are covered in the book. The Air Traffic Controllers strike and the Lordstown Strike. Growing up in Cleveland strikes were part of the regular news from local steel strikes to auto worker strikes. Somewhere in the late 1970s, organized labor began to fail. Japan and Europe recovered from WWII and union demands came to be perceived as too high as demand for American goods shrank. Today most strikes that make the news are teacher's unions and generally looked down upon even though these are the people teaching the next generation of Americans and American workers.

The history of organized labor in America is an interesting struggle of workers trying to get a fair wage for their effort. Six day work weeks and 100 hours of labor was not replaced with the ten hour day until the mid-nineteenth century. By the mid 20th century Americans were working a five day work week of 8 hour days. Unions drove for benefits like medical, holidays, and paid vacations. Today America works harder and longer for less and the middle class is rapidly shrinking.

Loomis gives a detailed history of the rise and fall of American labor. It's a seemingly permanent struggle to represent workers as a whole from the Wobblies to mine workers to the UAW against big business and at many times the government too. The struggle of American workers is more relevant when put into historical context than when it is captured with sound bites and demagoguery. A well-done documentation of an under-represented sector of American history. ...more

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Jan 30, 2019 b rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, on-workers, 2019-books

This book is really good: very dense but somehow always interesting, heavy on anecdotes to demonstrate macro themes, and clear, sharp critics of (1) racism, sexism, and xenophobia that has plagued the US labor movement and (2) the violence used by corporations & all levels of government to squash worker power. Also, it includes a good explanation of how progressive labor rights were afforded to women through very gendered (and arguably sexist) legal arguments.

I’d recommend to anyone who This book is really good: very dense but somehow always interesting, heavy on anecdotes to demonstrate macro themes, and clear, sharp critics of (1) racism, sexism, and xenophobia that has plagued the US labor movement and (2) the violence used by corporations & all levels of government to squash worker power. Also, it includes a good explanation of how progressive labor rights were afforded to women through very gendered (and arguably sexist) legal arguments.

I’d recommend to anyone who didn’t learn much about labor movements in high school or college, as well as anyone who thinks that businesses can be lured or enticed to treat workers well by their own volition. If you have read about the labor movement but don’t know much about the role women and people of color have played in it, read this too.

Things that I liked about this book:
- the level of detail (it includes so many examples of labor struggles I didn’t know about from all regions & geographies in the US)
- its critical analysis (really demonstrative, enraging examples of corporations and governments working together to forcefully break union strikes)
- clear, important take always (unions need to be inclusive; workers need to build movements that push political parties to the left; labor fails without an emphasis on electing allies to office; unions should focus on organizing low wage workers of color)
- the bibliography (so many books about black people, queer people, and women’s role in the 20th century labor movement)

Things I did not like:
- I think Loomis implies in the last chapter that economic insecurity lie at the core of racism/why white people voted for Trump. Its not a big per of this book so I didn’t knock a star off for it, but I disagree with that idea.

This was such a well written, accessible text that lies in anecdotes from the ground, legislation and court cases, and macro analysis. It centers the right people and successfully names groups that have historically been left out of conversations and legislation about American labor. It’s the best history book I’ve read in a while and I’m excited to continue reading Loomis’ work. ...more

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Mar 10, 2019 Mehrsa rated it liked it

A really great concept not well executed. Just go read Howard zinn or Eugene Debs. It’s dry and boring and there’s not much insight about the future

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Dec 09, 2018 Natalie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, non-fiction, labor-and-economics

Excellent, excellent book, and possibly my new favorite intro to the basics of US labor history.

What worked here:
This read as history, not as political theory. It feels like the author is studying these events with an eye to learn from them, not to retroactively apply an interpretation to advance an agenda. I appreciate this a lot in history writing.

And I learned a lot. We hear so much talk about the dismal state of organized labor, but really, when taking the long view, the situation is not Excellent, excellent book, and possibly my new favorite intro to the basics of US labor history.

What worked here:
This read as history, not as political theory. It feels like the author is studying these events with an eye to learn from them, not to retroactively apply an interpretation to advance an agenda. I appreciate this a lot in history writing.

And I learned a lot. We hear so much talk about the dismal state of organized labor, but really, when taking the long view, the situation is not hopeless right now. For all but 40 years of US history, the government and corporate powers have been aligned to crush their workers. Previous to 1935, that crushing often took the form of lethal violence. And people KEPT ORGANIZING! It's really stunning that anybody kept at it, given how few successes were ever won, how quickly those successes were usually eradicated, and how steep the costs of failure were. Given what organizers and workers faced before 1935, our terrain today doesn't seem nearly as difficult--it's always encouraging for me to remember that it could be way, way worse.

It was also such a relief to read a book that accounted for race and gender dynamics in a thoughtful way without that being the framing lens. Too much of labor history is the history of white men, and you have to read women's history or black history etc to get the other parts of the story. I appreciated that this history took, for the most part, a holistic approach, and brought about an analysis of those dynamics throughout. Specifically, I appreciated the author's straightforward accounting of the way legalized rape helped fuel both indentured servitude and slavery, and all the ways sexual violence against women has served the economic interests of capitalism.

Slavery was framed as a worker's rights issue! Yes! Duh! It is thrilling to learn the history of massive slave strikes during the Civil War, and it feels really appropriate to frame the mass abandonments of plantations as a strike. Too much of labor history has relegated slavery to being about only racial equality or black justice--OF COURSE it needs to be seen as possibly the most important development in the history of the US working class!

And it was illuminating to read an analysis of organizing tactics, action plans, and structural decisions in past eras of labor organizing. It is so easy for us to come up with easy, reductive answers today: unions need to be more militant! they need to strike more! they need to stop supporting the democratic party! and so on and so on and so on. Understanding the vast number of approaches taken in the past, where they worked and where they failed, is so helpful for gaining a more seasoned and strategic analysis than any of that.

My critiques are not necessarily finding fault, but wanting more. I want a lot more about immigrant organizing throughout the 20th century. I want a lot more about how bosses brought in trainloads of black strikebreakers from the south in different eras. The history covered of the massive manufacturing industries is obviously important and unavoidable, but I'd love to read more about what was happening in marginalized industries throughout this time--what was it like to be a waitress in 1940, or a house cleaner in 1960, or bus driver in 1980? It is particularly a little head scratching that the UFW only served as a footnote, and that the Las Vegas Culinary Union only earned a brief mention for its electoral prowess, and not it's groundbreaking worker strength and industry dominance in a right to work state. The final chapter on SEIU and Justice for Janitors felt the least satisfying--maybe because it's the history I'm personally closest to. But I would have liked to see more details about how that organizing was carried out, and what the economic results of it have been.

Overall, this book is easy to read and an excellent, excellent way to understand the major themes of American labor in various parts of history. ...more

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Jan 07, 2019 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Even book giveaways make me sad. Thousands of people put their names in for the chance to win a single free copy of the latest silly romance novel or knuckleheaded apoca-prepper saga. By comparison, when I signed up to receive a free copy of this book via Netgalley, there was not even the suggestion that some poorly-paid employee of a dying publishing company might vet my application to see if I was a big enough influencer to merit a freebie. If I wanted this history of how long dead complete Even book giveaways make me sad. Thousands of people put their names in for the chance to win a single free copy of the latest silly romance novel or knuckleheaded apoca-prepper saga. By comparison, when I signed up to receive a free copy of this book via Netgalley, there was not even the suggestion that some poorly-paid employee of a dying publishing company might vet my application to see if I was a big enough influencer to merit a freebie. If I wanted this history of how long dead complete strangers often lost their lives and livelihoods to win work benefits later enjoyed (and then surrendered) by self and ungrateful millions, I could have it, immediately.

Of course, reading the content of this book won't make you feel any better about humanity, either. While the book makes clear that unions were and are not uniformly populated by little angels, the horrific exploitation and cruelty that non-unionized workers were subjected to makes it difficult to feel anything but sympathy. Then, of course, efforts to organize their ranks and improve their lot often bring further adversity raining down, often at the hands of authorized representatives of government, but also occasionally at the hands of private paramilitaries.

Even the reviews of this book are depressing. One two-star review mocks the author (a university professor) for using the personal pronouns “we” and “us”, lumping himself in (so goes the criticism) with workers with whom he really has nothing in common. Call me a lefty apologist if you will, but it is clear that the traditional image of the workers as exclusively people tending a roaring smelter or clanking printing press is as outdated as hoop skirts, starched collars, and centralized economic planning. Times change -- the definition of a worker should change with them.

Furthermore, negative reviews of this book indicate to me that the reviewers never really got past the beginning of this book, which, to be fair, has a worshipful tone toward unions and unionizing. If you stick with this book, you will see that the author has a thorough knowledge of the shortcomings of unions, past and present, especially racism, but also corruption, intolerance of dissent, and lack of follow-up. This last I thought was an important point that is often lost in traditional histories, even when they are nominally sympathetic to unions, because often the great labor leaders and other lefty celebrities followed the spotlight, while workers had their gains reduced or even reversed completely once the public's eye had turned elsewhere.

I didn't love this book every moment and sometimes quibbled with certain statements. I noticed a few spelling and grammar errors, and sometimes I thought the text could have contained a few more citations. But I was glad I stuck with it, especially as it filled me in on labor actions of the last fifty years or so which I knew little about.

Thanks to Netgalley and The New Press for unquestioningly giving me a free electronic galley copy of this book to review. ...more

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Nov 06, 2019 catechism rated it really liked it

Shelves: practicing-politics, nonfiction, history

Surprisingly readable! Good overview/intro to the history of labor movements in the US, pro-union without being hagiographic about it, pretty intersectional in scope.

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Jan 16, 2018 Clare rated it it was amazing

I've been a big fan of Erik Loomis' writing over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money for years. Additionally, as I believe I mentioned in my review of John Nichols' The "S" Word, I had an American history event to run for DSA and nowhere near enough time to read Zinn for it! Fortunately, Loomis' new book A History of America in Ten Strikes, which I have been waiting for for several months, had the goodness to be published only three weeks ago, and the BPL system had some copies. I was able to cram I've been a big fan of Erik Loomis' writing over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money for years. Additionally, as I believe I mentioned in my review of John Nichols' The "S" Word, I had an American history event to run for DSA and nowhere near enough time to read Zinn for it! Fortunately, Loomis' new book A History of America in Ten Strikes, which I have been waiting for for several months, had the goodness to be published only three weeks ago, and the BPL system had some copies. I was able to cram about the first third of this book before I left for Vegas, which I was able to use to flesh out the presentation, and read the rest of it on the T and the plane, taking mental notes about stuff to use to fix the second half of the presentation when I got back to a computer the morning of the event.

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Sittin’ in the T station, readin’ about strikes #fridayreads

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Fortunately, this book is extremely readable and covers a lot of ground, which made it both immensely helpful for the presentation and easy enough to cram into my brain that it didn't feel like entirely inappropriate vacation reading (although the last time I went to Vegas I was reading a poker strategy book on the way out, which has math, so I guess I'm just bad at vacation reading). It's also vintage Erik — straightforward, dryly funny, relentlessly judgmental about the left's strategic weaknesses, but still militantly supportive of the dignity of all working people. One of the recurring themes, which is also a recurring theme in his blogging and also a recurring theme in American politics, is the role of racism in tanking attempts at labor solidarity and class consciousness in the U.S., or, more bluntly, that white people consistently decide they'd rather be racist than have nice things, and that's why we as a country can't have nice things.

The book covers a pretty well-rounded range of strikes, from the early industrial strikes of the Lowell Mill Girls up through the Justice for Janitors strikes and the current hubs of action in the labor movement. In between, we read about the big IWW-led strikes in heavy industry that everyone stereotypically associates with the labor movement, but ample attention is also given to strikes in female-dominated industries such as garment work and strikes by workers of color, such as the mass self-emancipation of slaves during the Civil War.

While there are some really great stories in this book — Loomis isn't going to miss a chance to recount my favorite failed historical assassination, Andrew Berkman and Emma Goldman's bungled attack on Henry Clay Frick — it's certainly not intended to be merely a repository of historical curiosities. There are valuable lessons that the current activist left can learn from the successes and failures of the past, and if you don't pick up on them just from hearing the stories, Erik will explicitly spell them out for you. Big ones include "It's important to get some less-terrible people into office so that you can work them" and "Workers of color are the future of the labor movement, and white people should strongly consider stop being so fucking racist, although there's no reason to assume they'll actually do that." He also makes sure you don't miss how incredibly violent much of labor history is, both in terms of the lengths to which capitalists and the state have gone to suppress even the mildest, most reasonable forms of worker organizing, and the militancy with which our labor ancestors worked to obtain the rights that we take for granted and which are being rapidly degraded as the New Gilded Age marches on (you know, stuff like "weekends"). The contrast with — and parallels to — the current whinging over "civility" in our current political discourse is illustrative.

Anyway, strikes are rad and they're making a comeback, so this is a timely book for anyone looking to be informed about them. It will make you fun at cocktail parties, assuming you go to the kind of cocktail parties that are full of weird nerds who like stories about anarchosyndicalists fucking up the Paterson silk mills, which are the only good kind of cocktail party to go to anyway.

Originally published at Uphold Rose Schneiderman thought. ...more

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Sep 16, 2018 Mara rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, ebook-owned

In a time when organized labor and unions are on the decline, Loomis provides a fierce call to arms to not let US labor rights slip from our fingers. I really enjoyed reading about 10 of the most significant strikes in US history, especially the one he details of slaves to attempted to self-emancipate in the 1800s. I also appreciated his emphasis on how prioritizing racial identity over class identity has been detrimental to the overall progression of workers' rights.

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Jan 13, 2020 Marie rated it really liked it

This is not one of those popular nonfiction books that reads like fiction. It summarizes a lot and drags down in detail. I can't say it's a fun read, but then, it is an important read, for providing a sweeping overview of labor struggles in the United States over time. If it feels repetitive, well, so does history.

I wish it had done what it advertised and focused just on the ten titular strikes, going into greater depth on less material, but rather it separates out a long narrative of many ...more

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Feb 05, 2019 Shauna rated it really liked it

Shelves: labor

This is a dense, readable overview of labor history in the United States. The "Ten Strikes" framing is a little overstated - the ten specific strikes get a bit more elaboration than the other strikes discussed, but not much. It's more of a way to divide up the history into digestible chunks.

I appreciate the frank way Loomis discusses how racism, nativism and sexism have divided workers. I wish the book were a bit longer so he could provide more detail about what circumstances and choices ...more

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Apr 15, 2019 Annie Oosterwyk rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-and-exploration, economics-politics

An excellent and accessible account of the class conflict between labor and capitalists from the beginning of industrialization to the present day. Perfect for the high school audience.

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Jan 03, 2019 Jim Gallen rated it really liked it

A country’s history can focus on many things because the pageant of a country can be glimpsed through many facets. The labor movement of our country is part of our social and economic history and “A History of America In Ten Strikes” uses the ultimate labor weapon to reflect that history.

The first strike is the 1834 Lowell (Massachusetts) Mill Girls strike against the textile manufacturers that resulted in reducing the work week to sixty-nine hours. The second is the rolling strike of slaves who A country’s history can focus on many things because the pageant of a country can be glimpsed through many facets. The labor movement of our country is part of our social and economic history and “A History of America In Ten Strikes” uses the ultimate labor weapon to reflect that history.

The first strike is the 1834 Lowell (Massachusetts) Mill Girls strike against the textile manufacturers that resulted in reducing the work week to sixty-nine hours. The second is the rolling strike of slaves who stopped working for their masters during the Civil War. Third is a series of Gilded Age strikes for an eight-hour-day. Next is the anthracite coal strike that saw the first Presidential intervention, that of Theodore Roosevelt, to attempt to bring labor peace in contrast to the traditional government support of management. Fifth was the Bread and Roses Strike organized by the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) in 1912. Sixth is the Flint Sit-Down Strike against GM in 1936 and 1937 and the advent of the New Deal in government encouragement of labor unions. Seventh is the Oakland General Strike of 1946, coming in the wake of World War II. Next is Lordstown, Ohio Strike against GM set against the backdrop of a chasm opening between the union leaders and their membership. Ninth is the Air Traffic Controllers of 1981 the highlighted the rise of public sector unions and finally the rise of the Service Employees International Union and the struggle of low wage earners.

This book clearly has an agenda of arguing for the interests of workers. In a sense this is a revisionist history in that it attempts to substitute the myth that progress came from the workers’ struggle for the myth of the rising tide lifting all boats. Even readers who do not identify with this agenda should stop and think where their forebearers stood in relation to the events chronicled on these pages. Author Erik Loomis uses each strike as a core of a chapter describing a phase in the evolution of labor-management relations and the broader socio-economic environment. He also examines the contest within labor between those striving for tangible, measured improvements in the lives of the workers and those seeking to force fundamental revolution. The author lays his card on the table early when he asserts “In Donald Trump, we face the most racist and misogynistic president in a century (maybe since Woodrow Wilson?, comment mine) who has demonstrated his utter contempt for the Constitution and the values that have made the United States the best it can be, (Wilson again?) even if it was never great for many of its citizens.” So, he does not like Trump but with language like that we can see that we are in for a biased narrative. My suspicion is also aroused when I catch historical errors. On page 42 we read that “Tennessean Andrew Johnson ascended to the Oval Office”, an office that was not constructed until the administration of William Howard Taft, 40 years after Johnson left office. I wonder how many other “facts” are not so.

Shortcomings notwithstanding history is not told only though presidents and wars. Cultural, religious, scientific and business, of which labor history is a part, also shape the nation we are today. Those who think that American history is a saga of injustice and oppression will find justification in this book. Those who think otherwise would benefit from taking a look from the other side for a more well-rounded appreciation of the American Pageant.

I did receive a free copy of this through the Amazon Vine Program. ...more

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Nov 27, 2018 James rated it it was amazing

Loomis wrote this popular history of labor uprisings in the United States, one shaped by ordinary and often powerless people banding together to improve their own lot in life. He frames this struggle as one of human beings reclaiming their own lives. He also deposits that there is little evidence that when governments and employers ally themselves to crush unions, they usually are successful and that labor's only hope in the long term is to put allies into government as well as strong grassroots Loomis wrote this popular history of labor uprisings in the United States, one shaped by ordinary and often powerless people banding together to improve their own lot in life. He frames this struggle as one of human beings reclaiming their own lives. He also deposits that there is little evidence that when governments and employers ally themselves to crush unions, they usually are successful and that labor's only hope in the long term is to put allies into government as well as strong grassroots organizing. I'm not so sure of that because often unions have supported politicians who end up betraying labor with little consequences, Loomis notes that more often than not, state and federal governments have sided with employers over workers. Despite the setbacks of unions, fights have been continued to be fought and won as well as lost.

Still, Loomis does a fabulous job of breaking down what he identifies as major flash points of working people's histories and how they have shaped the overall history of the United States. He opens with the story of the Lowell women's strikes in the mills in 1834-36 in one of the first mass strikes against the incredibly harsh working conditions of their day, even as conditions worsened as Irish immigrants filled the jobs. The second chapter looks to enslaved peoples resistance, reprising Dubois's argument that the mass leaving of plantations during the US Civil War helped break the South's economy that sealed the Union victory. The third looks to the story of the Knights of Labor in 1869 that sought to unite all workers and win the 8 Hour Day, only to collapse after the Haymarket affair in 1886, while the more conservative skilled white male craft based AFL rose in its stead. This lays the seeds of the fourth chapter in which after mass militant strikes were defeated by federal force in the 1890s, middle class progressives took a softer approach to labor and negotiated a settlement after the Pennsylvania Anthracite strike of 1902, the first time the federal government had interceded on the side of labor. In the fifth chapter, he moves to the rise of the radical Wobblies with immigrant based strikes in the Lawrence Bread and Roses strike and the Paterson strike, which Loomis notes both failed as the Wobblies could not establish permanent organization and once the radicals moved on, the companies crushed whatever had been achieved, yet the Wobblies loomed large in the power of direct action.

In chapter 6, Loomis moves to the story of the modern labor movement with the Flint sit-down strike that cemented the CIO as a permanent force that brought all workers no matter their craft into unions, organizing across racial and gender lines, mostly popularly in the UAW in auto. He then, in chapter 7 moves to the post-war strike wave that challenged Corporate America to share the massive profits it had accumulated during the war instead of sliding back into another depression, focusing on the Oakland General Strike, though he notes that labor eventually settled in return for serious wage gains and benefits, it booted its radicals and gave management complete control over decision making. In chapter 8, he looks to how workers began to push back against complacent union leadership, especially young and black workers who'd been left behind by leaders, especially as corporations began moving towards automation and demanding givebacks, as happened in Youngstown OH. This challenge set up, in chapter 9 the militant Air Traffic Controllers union which had become isolated and targeted by Reagan for crushing and blacklisting, which set up a general brutal offensive to destroy labor in the 1980s that set up a shrinking of organized labor by almost 2/3rds of its peak strength. However, he notes, in chapter 10, even as labor was crushed, alternative community based organizing rose, based in immigrant people of color led workers organizing in the Justice for Janitors campaign stewarded by SEIU.

Overall, this book would be valuable in introducing the reader to basic labor history. It is a fast and accessible read, as it boils down a large period into readable chunks. I'd consider assigning this to undergraduates. ...more

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Sep 26, 2018 Louise rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed

This and other reviews can be found here.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis is an informative non-fiction book focusing on the importance of strikes and what they they did for the working class of America. Loomis focuses on 10 strikes ranging from the Lowell Mill Girls Strike from 1930-1840 to Justice for Janitors in 1990.
The layout for this book was not what I expected, This and other reviews can be found here.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis is an informative non-fiction book focusing on the importance of strikes and what they they did for the working class of America. Loomis focuses on 10 strikes ranging from the Lowell Mill Girls Strike from 1930-1840 to Justice for Janitors in 1990.
The layout for this book was not what I expected, though it was not a bad way to do it. I expected that each chapter would talk about what happened during the strike and then tie it in with other parts of American History. Instead each strike is framed with a question which is then answered in depth using other strikes and context before going into the strike named at the beginning of the chapter. Once I understood this layout it didn't bother me.
This is definitely not a book to read all at once. There is so much information to absorb. I took breaks every few chapters and went and read a lighter book so that I could fully understand everything in the book. I loved that it had so much information, I learned tons of things that I didn't know already. In fact, it was rare that I already knew the strike that was focused on in the chapters and it was really refreshing to be able to learn so many things. However, it is a lot and it would have been overwhelming if I read it without stopping to read other things inbetween.
While this is an informative book, Loomis’ opinions come through a lot throughout this book. I didn’t expect the rhetoric that is used, I was looking more for an explanation on the strikes, not so much being told how important it is for workers to fight for their rights. While I agree with this ideal it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.
A History of America in Ten Strikes is an informative book and not one for someone who is just looking for a general overview. It held my attention for the most part through the usage of real life things that were happening at the time period, such as 12+ hour work days at dangerous jobs for low wages. This book holds real day importance and should be read by anyone who is trying to understand how we got to where we are in our workforce. ...more

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Dec 20, 2018 Brenden Gallagher rated it really liked it

Concise yet thorough, brisk yet wide-ranging, Erik Loomis' "A History of America in 10 Strikes" does what Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" did for American History for the American Labor Movement.

Perhaps those more familiar with labor history than myself will find this material familiar, and Loomis does hit some events most high school history students have encountered, like Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers strike and clashes between IWW and Pinkertons. However, Concise yet thorough, brisk yet wide-ranging, Erik Loomis' "A History of America in 10 Strikes" does what Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" did for American History for the American Labor Movement.

Perhaps those more familiar with labor history than myself will find this material familiar, and Loomis does hit some events most high school history students have encountered, like Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers strike and clashes between IWW and Pinkertons. However, Loomis uses familiar and unfamiliar events to paint a vivid picture of American Labor from the Revolution to present day. As a primer or a starting point for a dive into American Labor History, it is hard to imagine a more readable, considered book filled with plenty of names, movements, and moments to read more about if you like.

While Loomis take a broad historical view, he returns to familiar themes, reiterating important concepts like the professor he is. He reminds us that sex work is work, white union members are often racist, and that liberal political leaders and union leaders cannot always be depended on. These welcome reminders constitute the threads the pull numerous vignettes together into a taught whole.

Loomis also deserves particular praise for being sure to name many of the obscure workers from oppressed groups who changed labor history. He clearly wants this book to motivate: the underlying message in rescuing so many forgotten names from picket lines' past is that no matter who you are, any worker can change the world (or at least their workplace).

I am sure there are more thorough American labor histories out there (most of the highest rated tomes run 800 pages or more). But, with this brisk 200 page text you can get the information you need to start understanding American labor and class struggle more broadly. Whether you're shopping for a burgeoning Marxist, a curious Bernie Bro, or frustrated fast food worker, this book is sure made a nice addition to the bookshelf of any liberal, progressive, or radical in your life. ...more

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Sep 16, 2019 Paula rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-book-challenge, audiobooks

How refreshing to read a book that is so unabashedly pro worker and pro union. I grew up in a union household - my dad was a Teamster for most of his working life, but I also grew up in conservative Orange County, so I've heard union-bashing my entire life, sometimes even from folks who were currently members of a union!
Anyway, I thought I knew a lot about unions, but this book was a revelation. I knew some strikes had been violent, and some strikes hadn't brought about the changes that workers How refreshing to read a book that is so unabashedly pro worker and pro union. I grew up in a union household - my dad was a Teamster for most of his working life, but I also grew up in conservative Orange County, so I've heard union-bashing my entire life, sometimes even from folks who were currently members of a union!
Anyway, I thought I knew a lot about unions, but this book was a revelation. I knew some strikes had been violent, and some strikes hadn't brought about the changes that workers hoped for. What I didn't realize, however, were how many people sacrificed their lives and their livelihoods, to try to make a real difference for themselves, their families, and their fellow workers. Fighting for workplace safety, living wages, and things we take for granted like an 8-hour day, was a decades-long struggle, and many union organizers and rank-and-file workers died rather than put up with the meager offerings of factory owners. I also didn't realize how many of these important strikes failed, decade after decade. Still, workers persisted.
The union movement made its own mistakes through the years and one of the biggest was the racism that infected so many working class white men. As the author states more than once, "race trumped class" in union organizing, and many unions shut out women and people of color. The intent was often to protect jobs for white American men, and no one else. Also, the union movement was often inspired by communism, and some union leadership, like that in the International Workers of the World, freely advocated violence, arson, and the destruction of factories and capitalism. It's no wonder that unions often had an image problem. Still, it seems that more violence can be laid at the feet of the Pinkerton Agency, local police departments, and even Federal troops, all of whom took up arms against working class people, most of whom just wanted a relatively safe and secure job that paid enough to put food on the table.
The author begins the book by saying that he refers to our current era as the "New Gilded Age." By a coincidence, my husband and I recently watched a PBS documentary on the original Gilded Age, which refers roughly to the last third or so of the 1800s, a time of greed, fraud, monopolies, government favoring corporations over the common man, capitalism run amuck, and with a huge gap between the incomes of the 1% and the 99%. It was easy to see the similarities between that time and now.
The other thing this book makes perfectly clear is that the rise of unions in American coincided with the rise of the middle class. From the late 1930's until the late 1970's - early 1980's, unions had many members throughout the country, and unions tended to be strong, and politically powerful. Many of those union jobs were in manufacturing, and those jobs are mostly gone now, and even if any of them come back, they will likely be performed by robots. The author argues that service jobs are the future for unions - janitors, housekeepers, restaurant workers - but in order to really solidify gains for their members, union supporters will have to start electing leaders who support unions.

As I listened to this audio book, dark though the subject matter sometimes was, this song kept running through my head. It's from "The Pajama Game", a musical about a threatened strike at a pajama company, presented on Broadway at the height of middle class prosperity courtesy of the unions:
I figured it out!
I figured it out!
With a pencil and a pad I figured it out!
Seven and a half cents doesn't buy a hell of a lot,
Seven and a half cents doesn't mean a thing!
But give it to me every hour,
Forty hours every week,
And that's enough for me to be living like a king! ...more

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Sep 01, 2018 John Plowright rated it it was ok

Erik Loomis in ‘A History of America in Ten Strikes’ makes no secret of the fact that he sides with those who “throughout American history … wanted to work and live with human dignity” and who thus felt periodically obliged to withdraw their labour, as the employers’ “goal is to exploit us” and they “treat us like garbage”. “Us” is the preferred pronoun of the Associate Professor to express his profound sense of identity and solidarity with the unionised.

This declared bias means that the Erik Loomis in ‘A History of America in Ten Strikes’ makes no secret of the fact that he sides with those who “throughout American history … wanted to work and live with human dignity” and who thus felt periodically obliged to withdraw their labour, as the employers’ “goal is to exploit us” and they “treat us like garbage”. “Us” is the preferred pronoun of the Associate Professor to express his profound sense of identity and solidarity with the unionised.

This declared bias means that the argument of this book is not, surprisingly, lacking in subtlety. True, Loomis warns at one point that “we should not romanticize strikes” (not least because some strikes were called “to keep workplaces all white”) but this is precisely what Loomis nevertheless ends up doing.

The book comprises an introduction; ten chapters focusing upon a particular strike (with roughly one-third of each chapter examining the strike in question, whilst the remaining two-thirds aim to place “that strike in context of the broader issues affecting Americans at the time”); then there is a conclusion; and finally an appendix comprising a timeline of the 150 most important moments in US labour history, ranging from the first importation of American slaves to Jamestown in 1619, to the 2016 election of President Trump (who is elsewhere characterized as “a fascist Islamophobe”). The ten strikes run from the Lowell Mill Girls Strike of 1830–40, to the Justice for Janitors action in Los Angeles in 1990.

Loomis provides some interesting and accessible narrative but very little by way of incisive analysis. Even the criteria for choosing his ten strikes seem terribly vague. For example we’re told in advance that his consideration of the 1902 Anthracite Strike in Pennsylvania will explain “ the central role of government in deciding the fate of a strike, with both great possibilities and great peril for workers”. This level of platitude suffuses the entire book. Thus the chapter on the 1980 Air Traffic Controllers’ strike, for example, begins by telling us that “When government opposes unions, workers suffer.” Does anyone but the most blinkered neoliberal really need that spelt out, and even when spelt out thus baldly would any neoliberal be persuaded to mend their ways?

Another problem with the book, considered as a work of History, is that Loomis is clearly as much – or more – concerned with the present and the future as he is with the past but whereas Naomi Klein in ‘No is Not Enough’ provides a rousing and plausible plan of campaign for uniting and mobilizing trade unionists, environmentalists, feminists, indigenous people and “the other victims of racism and xenophobia”, Loomis’s hope for “worker justice” in the future rests on turning the Democratic Party once again “into an instrument of workers’ rights” by unspecified “organizing both inside and outside” it.

In short, whilst historically there is power in a union, ‘A History of America in Ten Strikes’ is decidedly anaemic, being as rich in vicarious indignation, as it is poor in insights about the past or detailed proposals for the future. ...more

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Jan 01, 2019 Brian rated it it was ok

Shelves: american-history-general

Erik Loomis in his book A history of America in Ten Strikes looks at various moments of labor unrest through a socialist lense and tries to place them in the context of American history. The ultimate crux is in the form of government as an oppressor and only during times when government either remains neutral or sides with labor can the unions win. The 10 Strikes looked at are
1. Lowell Mill Girls
2. Slavery in America during the civil war (hard sell and not convinced by the end)
3. Eight Hour ...more

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Sep 18, 2018 Christopher Hayes rated it liked it

This book is a well researched and informative take on an important and often ignored aspect of American history. However, it is plagued with poor editing and repetitive pontificating. The author presents a strong bias from the beginning and reminds you of it consistently. As a primer this book would be appropriate for members of a union who are active and have already formed their own opinions, and are just seeking to fill in gaps in their knowlidge. With strong fingerpointing that on occasion ...more

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Aug 11, 2019 Quartz rated it really liked it

I read this one pretty quickly and I read it a while ago, but it's well written and effective. It is a good history, as far as I know, of the 10 strikes in question, and shows that striking, work stopping, sabotage, and the like have been part of the American worker's arsenal since the beginning - and that American workers aren't just white men. I bought the book because of the second chapter, where the author discusses the striking of enslaved people in America, one of the most overlooked labor ...more

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Sep 09, 2019 Kris Dersch rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, nonfiction

This was a great take on American history that I liked enough to overlook a lot of its flaws. Taking us chronologically through the history of American labor, it ties the labor struggle to other events in American history, not just the Industrial Revolution and the Cold War, which are often discussed in this context, but the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and other benchmarks in American history not often enough viewed through the lens of labor. Well-researched and readable, it was a ...more

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May 12, 2019 Krayfish1 rated it it was amazing

The focus of the book is not so much on the strikes as on the history of the labor movement from textile workers in New England and slaves' action during the Civil War to the 8-hour work day to the union-busting of the 1980's. It's a different picture of America than you get in high school history books, which is generally "look at all this progress we made, we are always moving forward and getting better" vs. this book, which is more "here's a fight where we were beaten, here's a fight where we ...more

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Jul 18, 2019 Ed Barton rated it it was amazing

A well written look at the history of the U.S. labor movement from the 17th Century to 2016. Written by a labor historian, and certainly a pro-union perspective on the labor movement, the book is well written - discussing 10 key moments that helped define the current state of the labor movement. While the title is a bit of an overreach - as the history of the country is intertwined with the labor movement but not dominated by it - the book is a must read for everyone interested in politics, ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 Jess rated it it was amazing

A total misnomer. There were like 80 million strikes in this book.

The first two strikes centered on the role of women, then of slaves. My first thought was, "Ok, this guy is hitting his diversity credit at the beginning." But really, the themes were present throughout. My experience digest history books is that there's a chapter on each minority, but the central story is about the white male experience. This book offers a thorough history of the misogyny & racism that plagued unions & ...more

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Aug 17, 2019 zelixir rated it really liked it

Really great if you're looking for an overview of major moments in US labor history. the book itself is pretty short but would serve as a good springboard for learning more in depth about various struggles. unfortunately the author concludes by imploring readers to continue to put faith in electoralism and specifically the Democratic Party who he believes can be pulled back to the left in order to elect pro-union politicians. one thing he does do really well it's discuss racism and misogyny that ...more

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Oct 16, 2018 Ryan Macnair rated it liked it

This book was fairly informative about various labor movements throughout American history. It definitely has its pro-labor and pro-liberal bias. It is pretty open about that. My only real issue was that it felt a bit repetitive. Basically every strike had the same means of getting things done and the government and the bosses had the same means of putting them down. In general though, it was pretty good to get a handle on individual strikes and the labor movement.

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Jun 27, 2019 Amy rated it it was amazing

As a union member who has been on strike many times, this book helped me understand the context and long history of unions in America and realize that there has always been a struggle among us workers. At least I’m not getting beaten up and killed while on strike. The cops are nice to us while striking.
I learned that America has always been a shitty capitalist society and things are no worse now than they have been before. Highly recommend this book to learn more about American history.

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Mar 02, 2019 Vince rated it it was amazing

An excellent primer on US labor history. At 229 pages Loomis packs a lot in. In each of ten chapters he centers on one major strike, but prefaces it with info on various other strikes as well, so the reader gets a well rounded general discussion of the various reasons and goals each "major" strike encompasses. The notes are very good as well, and includes a vast amount of supplementary writings for the readers continued investigations.

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Feb 20, 2019 Meg Brown rated it liked it

Shelves: labor, own, social-justice

There's some good stuff here. I especially appreciated the discussion of racism in the labor movement. But the tone switched on and off between "be radical... but not too radical" too much for me. Also, could have used more clarification on chronology--sometimes Loomis bounces around between decades in a single paragraph.

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