"If the Workers Took a Notion" : The Right to Strike and American Political Development / Josiah Bartlett Lambert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lambert, Josiah Bartlett, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Employee rights--United States--History--20th century.

Employee rights.

Labor laws and legislation--United States--History--20th century.

Labor laws and legislation.

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

Labor unions.

Political culture--United States--History--20th century.

Political culture.

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

Strikes and lockouts.

Industrial relations--United States--History--20th century.

Industrial relations.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 259 p. :) ill. ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Once a fundamental civic right, strikes are now constrained and contested. In an unusual and thought-provoking history, Josiah Bartlett Lambert shows how the ability to strike was transformed from a fundamental right that made the citizenship of working people possible into a conditional and commercialized function. Arguing that the executive branch, rather than the judicial branch, was initially responsible for the shift in attitudes about the necessity for strikes and that the rise of liberalism has contributed to the erosion of strikers' rights, Lambert analyzes this transformation in relation to American political thought. His narrative begins before the Civil War and takes the reader through the permanent striker replacement issue and the alienation of workplace-based collective action from community-based collective action during the 1960s. "If the Workers Took a Notion" maps the connections among American political development, labor politics, and citizenship to support the claim that the right to strike ought to be a citizenship right and once was regarded as such. Lambert argues throughout that the right to strike must be protected. He challenges the current "law turn" in labor scholarship and takes into account the role of party alliances, administrative agencies, the military, and the rise of modern presidential powers.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1. "An inevitable and irresistible conflict"

2. ''Something of freedom is yet to come"

3. "A nation of mock citizens"

4. "The very instruments of democracy are often used to oppress them"

5. "Let the toilers assemble"

6. "Get down to the type of job you~re supposed to be doing''

7. "Let us stand with a greater determination"

8. "Playing hardball''

9. ''We deplore strikes because of the inconvenience"

10. "Something of slavery still remains"

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Sep 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781501727528

1501727524

OCLC:

1080550990