"If the Workers Took a Notion": The Right to Strike and American Political Development / Edition 1

by Josiah Bartlett Lambert

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801489457
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	09/22/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Josiah Bartlett Lambert is Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Bonaventure University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	"An inevitable and irresistible conflict" The Strange Case of the Disappearing American Strike	1
2	"Something of freedom is yet to come" The Early American Labor Movement and the Right to Strike	20
3	"A nation of mock citizens" The New American State and the Right to Strike, 1877-1895	43
4	"The very instruments of democracy are often used to oppress them" The Right to Strike during the Progressive Era	64
5	"Let the toilers assemble" The New Deal and the Modern Liberal Right to Strike	84
6	"Get down to the type of job you're supposed to be doing" World War II and the Labor Management Relations Act	105
7	"Let us stand with a greater determination" The National Labor Relations Act and the Bifurcation of Collective Action in the 1960s	129
8	"Playing hardball" Permanent Striker Replacements and the Limits of Industrial Justice	150
9	"We deplore strikes because of the inconvenience" Modern American Liberalism and the Right to Strike	167
10	"Something of slavery still remains" The Right to Strike as a Citizenship Right	189
	Notes	209
	Index	251

What People are Saying About This

Russell Muirhead

"If the Workers Took a Notion" is a superb read; its prose is bold, dramatic, and pointed. It offers a comprehensive and gripping overview of the history of labor relations in the United States from the Civil War to the present with a focus throughout on the right to strike. Attentive to the tortured history and dim prospects for such a right, Josiah Bartlett Lambert illuminates a radical vision of the connection between work and citizenship.

Karen Orren

Working smoothly from history to current prospects, Josiah Bartlett Lambert brings the strike back into focus as the quintessential weapon of the working class. There is a lot to consider in this stimulating book, including the future of an American 'rights' regime that includes a remobilized labor movement.

Editorial Reviews

""If the Workers Took a Notion" is a superb read; its prose is bold, dramatic, and pointed. It offers a comprehensive and gripping overview of the history of labor relations in the United States from the Civil War to the present with a focus throughout on the right to strike. Attentive to the tortured history and dim prospects for such a right, Josiah Bartlett Lambert illuminates a radical vision of the connection between work and citizenship."

--Russell Muirhead, Harvard University, author of Just Work

"Working smoothly from history to current prospects, Josiah Bartlett Lambert brings the strike back into focus as the quintessential weapon of the working class. There is a lot to consider in this stimulating book, including the future of an American 'rights' regime that includes a remobilized labor movement."

--Karen Orren, UCLA

From the Publisher

"Working smoothly from history to current prospects, Josiah Bartlett Lambert brings the strike back into focus as the quintessential weapon of the working class. There is a lot to consider in this stimulating book, including the future of an American 'rights' regime that includes a remobilized labor movement."

Karen Orren

""If the Workers Took a Notion" is a superb read; its prose is bold, dramatic, and pointed. It offers a comprehensive and gripping overview of the history of labor relations in the United States from the Civil War to the present with a focus throughout on the right to strike. Attentive to the tortured history and dim prospects for such a right, Josiah Bartlett Lambert illuminates a radical vision of the connection between work and citizenship."

Russell Muirhead