Teacher strike! : public education and the making of a new American political order / Jon Shelton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shelton, Jon, 1978- author.

Series:

Working class in American history.

Working class in American history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Strikes and lockouts--Teachers--United States--History--20th century.

Strikes and lockouts.

Teachers' unions--United States--History--20th century.

Teachers' unions.

Public schools--United States--History--20th century.

Public schools.

Collective bargaining--Teachers--United States.

Collective bargaining.

Labor movement--United States--History--20th century.

Labor movement.

United States--Politics and government--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (208 pages).

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017]

Summary:

"This project explores the teacher strikes of the late 1960s and 1970s, arguing that the strikes reflect the tensions of a liberal vision that could no longer afford to sustain the promise of economic opportunity. The manner in which the state provides education to its citizens has been a major political battleground for much of American history given that education is a fundamental facet of everyday life as well as the single-most expensive expenditure of local governments. Teacher strikes, therefore, directly affect the public in ways that no other workers strike could. Using media sources such as television news, print reportage, editorials and letters to the editor, and school board meetings, Shelton puts close examinations of strikes in Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and St. Louis in dialogue with the national trajectory of neoliberal conservatism in this period, demonstrating how the strikes and the discourses they provoked contributed to the growing public perception that unions were at best irrelevant and at worst detrimental to American prosperity. He also examines the ways that foes of the labor movement increasingly tapped into cultural and economic anxieties of that tumultuous decade to undermine teacher unionism, in particular, and liberal and pro-union policies, more generally"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

“A New Era of Labor Relations”: Teachers and the Public-Sector Labor Problem

Teacher Power, Black Power, and the Fracturing of Labor Liberalism

“Who Is Going to Run the Schools?” Teacher Strikes and the Urban Crises of 1972–73

Dropping Dead: Teachers, the New York City Fiscal Crisis, and Austerity

The Pittsburgh Teacher Strike of 1975–76 and the Crisis of the Labor-Liberal Coalition

The “Fed-up Taxpayer”: St. Louis, Philadelphia, and the Eclipse of the Labor-Liberal Coalition

Conclusion: Teacher Unions and the American Political Imagination.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780252099373

0252099370

OCLC:

968246518