[A] tense investigative chronicle. --The New Yorker

For more than fifty years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee,  burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste sixty feet high and covering eighty-four acres, contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, just before Christmas, that embankment broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered three hundred acres, damaged nearly thirty homes, and precipitating a cleanup effort that would cost more than a billion dollars--and the lives of more than fifty cleanup workers who inhaled the toxins it released.

Jim Scott, a local personal-injury lawyer, agreed to represent the workers after they began to fall ill. That meant doing legal battle against the Tennessee Valley Authority,  a colossal, federally owned power company that had once been a famous cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Scott and his hastily assembled team gathered extensive evidence of malfeasance: threats against workers; retaliatory firings; disregarded safety precautions; and test results, either hidden or altered, that would have revealed harmful concentrations of arsenic, lead, and radioactive materials at the cleanup site. At every stage, Scott--outmanned and nearly broke--had to overcome legal hurdles constructed by TVA and the firm it hired to help execute the cleanup. He grew especially close to one of the victims, whose swift decline only intensified his hunger for justice. As the incriminating evidence mounted, the workers seemed to have everything on their side, including the truth--and yet, was it all enough to prevail?

The lawsuit that Scott pursued on the workers' behalf was about their illnesses, no doubt. But it was also about whether blue-collar employees could beat the C-suite; if self-described hillbilly lawyers could beat elite corporate defense attorneys; and whether strong evidence could beat fat pocketbooks. With suspense and rich detail, Jared Sullivan's thrilling account lays bare the casual brutality of the American justice system, and calls into question whether--and how--the federal government has failed its people.

Holding the Line, Barbara Kingsolver's first non-fiction book, is the story of women's lives transformed by an a signal event. Set in the small mining towns of Arizona, it is part oral history and part social criticism, exploring the process of empowerment which occurs when people work together as a community. Like Kingsolver's award-winning novels, Holding the Line is a beautifully written book grounded on the strength of its characters.

Hundreds of families held the line in the 1983 strike against Phelps Dodge Copper in Arizona. After more than a year the strikers lost their union certification, but the battle permanently altered the social order in these small, predominantly Hispanic mining towns. At the time the strike began, many women said they couldn't leave the house without their husband's permission. Yet, when injunctions barred union men from picketing, their wives and daughters turned out for the daily picket lines. When the strike dragged on and men left to seek jobs elsewhere, women continued to picket, organize support, and defend their rights even when the towns were occupied by the National Guard. Nothing can ever be the same as it was before, said Diane McCormick of the Morenci Miners Women's Auxiliary. Look at us. At the beginning of this strike, we were just a bunch of ladies.

The Lost and Early Writings of James Connolly, 1889-1898 unveils the formative years of one of the 20th century's most influential socialist thinkers and revolutionary leaders. In this groundbreaking collection, editor Conor McCabe brings together Connolly's earliest articles, letters, and speeches, many of which have remained unpublished or inaccessible for over a century. These writings offer a rare glimpse into Connolly's evolving political thought as he navigated the fight for workers' rights, socialism, and Irish independence. Through his sharp critiques of capitalism and imperialism, Connolly laid the intellectual groundwork for the radical movements that would later define his legacy.

This collection not only captures Connolly's intellectual rigor but also his deep personal commitment to the working class and the oppressed. From his early involvement in Scottish socialist circles to his growing leadership in Ireland, Connolly's writings reveal a thinker who was as much a man of action as of theory. His early works show the seeds of what would become his revolutionary strategy-a blend of Marxist analysis, Irish republicanism, and a fierce advocacy for international solidarity. For readers, this volume offers a window into the life of a young rebel whose ideas would ignite movements far beyond his time and place.

With meticulous editing and historical context, this volume is an indispensable resource for scholars of labor history, Marxism, and Irish studies, while also remaining accessible to a broader audience eager to explore the origins of Connolly's revolutionary ideas. The Lost and Early Writings offers both a scholarly analysis of Connolly's early political development and a compelling narrative of a revolutionary mind in the making. This collection is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the foundations of Connolly's thought and his enduring influence on global struggles for justice and equality-as well as their relevance to modern day liberation struggles.

Recommended by The Nation, the New Republic, Current Affairs, Bustle, In These Times

An entertaining, tough-minded, and strenuously argued (The Nation) account of ten moments when workers fought to change the balance of power in America

A brilliantly recounted American history through the prism of major labor struggles, with critically important lessons for those who seek a better future for working people and the world. -Noam Chomsky

Powerful and accessible, A History of America in Ten Strikes challenges all of our contemporary assumptions around labor, unions, and American workers. In this brilliant book, labor historian Erik Loomis recounts ten critical workers' strikes in American labor history that everyone needs to know about (and then provides an annotated list of the 150 most important moments in American labor history in the appendix). From the Lowell Mill Girls strike in the 1830s to Justice for Janitors in 1990, these labor uprisings do not just reflect the times in which they occurred, but speak directly to the present moment.

For example, we often think that Lincoln ended slavery by proclaiming the slaves emancipated, but Loomis shows that they freed themselves during the Civil War by simply withdrawing their labor. He shows how the hopes and aspirations of a generation were made into demands at a GM plant in Lordstown in 1972. And he takes us to the forests of the Pacific Northwest in the early nineteenth century where the radical organizers known as the Wobblies made their biggest inroads against the power of bosses. But there were also moments when the movement was crushed by corporations and the government; Loomis helps us understand the present perilous condition of American workers and draws lessons from both the victories and defeats of the past.

In crystalline narratives, labor historian Erik Loomis lifts the curtain on workers' struggles, giving us a fresh perspective on American history from the boots up.

Strikes include:

Lowell Mill Girls Strike (Massachusetts, 1830-40)

Slaves on Strike (The Confederacy, 1861-65)

The Eight-Hour Day Strikes (Chicago, 1886)

The Anthracite Strike (Pennsylvania, 1902)

The Bread and Roses Strike (Massachusetts, 1912)

The Flint Sit-Down Strike (Michigan, 1937)

The Oakland General Strike (California, 1946)

Lordstown (Ohio, 1972)

Air Traffic Controllers (1981)

Justice for Janitors (Los Angeles, 1990)

In an era of polarization, big lies, and massive legislative setbacks, changemakers in every arena need to learn the skills and lessons honed in pitched battles against experienced and ruthless union busters. Rules to Win By is a book for workers, unionists, racial justice and climate campaigners, academics, policymakers and everyone who wants a more fair and democratic society.

From longtime labor organizer Jane McAlevey, a vital call-to-arms in favor of unions, a key force capable of defending our democracy

For decades, racism, corporate greed, and a skewed political system have been eating away at the social and political fabric of the United States. Yet as McAlevey reminds us, there is one weapon whose effectiveness has been proven repeatedly throughout U.S. history: unions.

In A Collective Bargain, longtime labor organizer, environmental activist, and political campaigner Jane McAlevey makes the case that unions are a key institution capable of taking effective action against today's super-rich corporate class. Since the 1930s, when unions flourished under New Deal protections, corporations have waged a stealthy and ruthless war against the labor movement. And they've been winning.

Until today. Because, as McAlevey shows, unions are making a comeback. Want to reverse the nation's mounting wealth gap? Put an end to sexual harassment in the workplace? End racial disparities on the job? Negotiate climate justice? Bring back unions.

As McAlevey travels from Pennsylvania hospitals, where nurses are building a new kind of patient-centered unionism, to Silicon Valley, where tech workers have turned to old-fashioned collective action, to the battle being waged by America's teachers, readers have a ringside seat at the struggles that will shape our country--and our future.

Winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics

A renowned economic historian traces women's journey to close the gender wage gap and sheds new light on the continued struggle to achieve equity between couples at home

A century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female college graduates than ever before, and more women want to have a career and family, yet challenges persist at work and at home. This book traces how generations of women have responded to the problem of balancing career and family as the twentieth century experienced a sea change in gender equality, revealing why true equity for dual career couples remains frustratingly out of reach.

Drawing on decades of her own groundbreaking research, Claudia Goldin provides a fresh, in-depth look at the diverse experiences of college-educated women from the 1900s to today, examining the aspirations they formed--and the barriers they faced--in terms of career, job, marriage, and children. She shows how many professions are greedy, paying disproportionately more for long hours and weekend work, and how this perpetuates disparities between women and men. Goldin demonstrates how the era of COVID-19 has severely hindered women's advancement, yet how the growth of remote and flexible work may be the pandemic's silver lining.

Antidiscrimination laws and unbiased managers, while valuable, are not enough. Career and Family explains why we must make fundamental changes to the way we work and how we value caregiving if we are ever to achieve gender equality and couple equity.

This widely acclaimed book, first published in 1974, was a classic from its first day in print. Written in a direct, inviting way by Harry Braverman, whose years as an industrial worker gave him rich personal insight into work, Labor and Monopoly Capital overturned the reigning ideologies of academic sociology.This new edition features an introduction by John Bellamy Foster that sets the work in historical and theoretical context, as well as two rare articles by Braverman, The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century (1975) and Two Comments (1976), that add much to our understanding of the book.

In 1995, in the first contested election in the history of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney won the presidency of the nation's largest labor federation, promising renewal and resurgence. Today, less than 7 percent of American private-sector workers belong to a union, the lowest percentage since the beginning of the twentieth century, and public employee collective bargaining has been dealt devastating blows in Wisconsin and elsewhere. What happened?

Jane McAlevey is famous--and notorious--in the American labor movement as the hard-charging organizer who racked up a string of victories at a time when union leaders said winning wasn't possible. Then she was bounced from the movement, a victim of the high-level internecine warfare that has torn apart organized labor. In this engrossing and funny narrative--that reflects the personality of its charismatic, wisecracking author--McAlevey tells the story of a number of dramatic organizing and contract victories, and the unconventional strategies that helped achieve them.

Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) argues that labor can be revived, but only if the movement acknowledges its mistakes and fully commits to deep organizing, participatory education, militancy, and an approach to workers and their communities that more resembles the campaigns of the 1930s--in short, social movement unionism that involves raising workers' expectations (while raising hell).

An essential primer for rebuilding a militant labor movement centered on solidarity with all workers.

What would it take to topple Amazon? To change how health care works in America? To break up the media monopolies that have taken hold of our information and imaginations? How is it possible to organize those without hope working on the margins? In Labor Power and Strategy, legendary strategist, historian, and labor organizer John Womack, speaks directly to a new generation, providing rational, radical, experience-based perspectives that help target and run smart, strategic, effective campaigns in the working class.

In this sleek, practical, pocket inspiration, Womack lays out a timely plan for identifying chokepoints and taking advantage of supply chain issues in order to seize and build labor power and solidarity. Interviewed by Peter Olney of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union--Womack's lively, illuminating thoughts are built upon by ten young labor organizers and educators, whose responses create a rich dialogue and open a space for joyful, achievable change. With stories of triumph that will bring readers to tears this back-pocket primer is an instant classic.

With contributions from Gene Bruskin, Carey Dall, Dan DiMaggio, Katy Fox-Hodess, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jane McAlevey, Jack Metzgar, Joel Ochoa, Melissa Shetler, and Rand Wilson.

In documented conversation with Michele Gibbs, political activist, artist and poet, Hamlin offers an inside look at the development of the League and its internal struggles, analyzes historic gains made and lessons learned as they apply to the continuing fight for racial equality by the working class. The book includes a Readers Study Guide, appendices of documents, poetry, artwork and photos pertinent to the period.

The Lost and Early Writings of James Connolly, 1889-1898 unveils the formative years of one of the 20th century's most influential socialist thinkers and revolutionary leaders. In this groundbreaking collection, historian Conor McCabe brings together Connolly's earliest articles, letters, and speeches, many of which have remained unpublished or inaccessible for over a century. These writings offer a rare glimpse into Connolly's evolving political thought as he navigated the fight for workers' rights, socialism, and Irish independence. Through his sharp critiques of capitalism and imperialism, Connolly laid the intellectual groundwork for the radical movements that would later define his legacy.

This collection not only captures Connolly's intellectual rigor but also his deep personal commitment to the working class and the oppressed. From his early involvement in Scottish socialist circles to his growing leadership in Ireland, Connolly's writings reveal a thinker who was as much a man of action as of theory. His early works show the seeds of what would become his revolutionary strategy-a blend of Marxist analysis, Irish republicanism, and a fierce advocacy for international solidarity. For readers, this volume offers a window into the life of a young rebel whose ideas would ignite movements far beyond his time and place.

With meticulous editing and historical context, this volume is an indispensable resource for scholars of labor history, Marxism, and Irish studies, while also remaining accessible to a broader audience eager to explore the origins of Connolly's revolutionary ideas. The Lost and Early Writings offers both a scholarly analysis of Connolly's early political development and a compelling narrative of a revolutionary mind in the making. This collection is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the foundations of Connolly's thought and his enduring influence on global struggles for justice and equality-as well as their relevance to modern day liberation struggles.

Cass's argument can be stated simply: work matters. The implications of this idea yield a groundbreaking reevaluation of American society, economics, and public policy that challenges our basic assumptions about what prosperity means and whence it comes. American policy makers have focused exclusively on consumption, pursuing an agenda that guaranteed everyone more and cheaper and better stuff without concern for who would make it. But more important than the size of our televisions is the ability to support our families and contribute productively to our communities. When people lose those things, ultra-high-definition flat-screens are no substitute.

The traditional emphasis on economic growth is important, Cass agrees, but whose growth matters. America must turn its attention to its long-neglected workers and pursue public policies that recognize and reinforce their vital role as the foundation of a thriving, self-sufficient society that offers opportunity for all. This is the essential policy book for our time (Yuval Levin, American Enterprise Institute), retracing the steps that led us astray and showing the path forward to the new way of thinking and the new ideas that the nation needs today.

Inside the Invisible Cage uses unique longitudinal data to investigate how digital labor platforms use algorithms to dictate the actions of high-skilled workers by determining accepted behaviors, work opportunities, and even success. As Hatim Rahman explains, employers can use algorithms to shift rules and guidelines without notice, explanation, or recourse for workers. The invisible cage signals a profound shift in the way markets and organizations categorize and ultimately control people.

Unlike previous forms of labor control, the invisible cage is ubiquitous, yet it is also opaque and shifting, which makes breaking free from it difficult for workers. This book traces how the invisible cage was developed over time and the implications it has for the spread of new technology, such as generative artificial intelligence. Inside the Invisible Cage also provides organizations, workers, and policymakers with insights on how to ensure the future of work has truly equitable, mutually beneficial outcomes.