A Contest of Ideas: Capital, Politics and Labor

The Working Class in American History

by Nelson Lichtenstein

For more than thirty years Nelson Lichtenstein has deployed his scholarship--on labor, politics, and social thought--to chart the history and prospects of a progressive America. A Contest of Ideas collects and updates many of Lichtenstein's most provocative and controversial essays and reviews. These incisive writings link the fate of the labor movement to the transformations in the shape of world capitalism, to the rise of the civil rights movement, and to the activists and intellectuals who have played such important roles. Tracing broad patterns of political thought, Lichtenstein offers important perspectives on the relationship of labor and the state, the tensions that sometimes exist between a culture of rights and the idea of solidarity, and the rise of conservatism in politics, law, and intellectual life. The volume closes with portraits of five activist intellectuals whose work has been vital to the conflicts that engage the labor movement, public policy, and political culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Political Science, Labor

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2012

About the author

Nelson Lichtenstein is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy.

Reviews

[Alper Çuğun · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is good to read a bunch of slices of the history of the American labour movement. Any attention we can push towards this overlooked and taken for grant struggle is definitely worthwhile. Just that a lot of the writing here about it is so boring that I was thinking halfway through: ‘No wonder the labour movement is struggling.’

There are some valuable insights into developments in here and how they pertain to our current situation and I am a better person for having struggled through this entire thing, but I wouldn't wish it on anybody.