Bücher von Steve Babson

The Populists of the 1890s transformed the nation's political terrain, and this book tells the story of the hard-pressed farmers who launched that movement. Their call for a widening democracy to counter corporate monopoly and profiteering tapped into a growing resentment of the rich, a resentment that grew as the economy alternated between rapid growth, producing more millionaires, and severe economic depressions, producing more poverty. The Populist challenge to unbridled capitalism would finally force Republicans and especially Democrats to recognize the growing support for progressive change within their own ranks. These historical Populists are now forgotten as today's pundits would have us believe that "populists" of the left - no less so than the right - are uniquely drawn to authoritarian politics. Often enough, the term serves as a sly pejorative, hinting at the unreliable behavior and hidden agendas of anyone who challenges established authority.You won't find that in this book. The historical Populists are presented here as champions of democracy and forward-looking reforms. Recovering the historical meaning of their challenge to corporate absolutism is a first step in linking that past to current struggles against the corporate behemoths of our time.

The Unfinished Struggle is one of the most concise, comprehensive, and accessible histories of the modern American labor movement ever written. Labor scholar and activist Steve Babson''s dramatic narrative examines the numerous attempts to organize workers from the Great Uprising of 1877 to the ''sitdown'' strikes of the 1930s to the present day. Babson illuminates the tumultuous past, evolving agenda, and continuing conflicts of the labor movement. He carefully identifies the causes of labor''s decline in recent decades and explains union leaders'' attempts to revive their organizations. Most important, Babson shows readers how the fortunes of organized labor are tied to larger trends in American history.