03295nam 22006014a 450 991095848610332120251117115855.00-8262-6357-7(CKB)1000000000001671(OCoLC)54761081(CaPaEBR)ebrary10048235(SSID)ssj0000128677(PQKBManifestationID)11139637(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000128677(PQKBWorkID)10070645(PQKB)10968146(MiAaPQ)EBC3570770(Au-PeEL)EBL3570770(CaPaEBR)ebr10048235(OCoLC)56422736(BIP)11494291(BIP)7834622(EXLCZ)99100000000000167120020801d2002 ub 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrConfronting American labor the New Left dilemma /Jeffrey W. Coker1st ed.Columbia University of Missouri Pressc20021 online resource (227 p.) Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-8262-1420-7 Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-201) and index.Labor and the search for American socialism -- The exceptionalism of American labor -- The intellectual's role in the workers' movement -- Abandonment of the "labor metaphysic" -- The promise of insurgent labor -- New lefts, new insurgents -- The new labor history and the revival of the proletariat -- The historian's search for power.Confronting American Labor traces the development of the American left, from the Depression era through the Cold War, by examining four representative intellectuals who grappled with the difficult question of labor's role in society. Since the time of Marx, leftists have raised over and over the question of how an intelligentsia might participate in a movement carried out by the working class. Their modus operandi was to champion those who suffered injustice at the hands of the powerful. From the late nineteenth through much of the twentieth century, this meant a focus on the industrial worker. The Great Depression was a time of remarkable consensus among leftist intellectuals, who often interpreted worker militancy as the harbinger of impending radical change. While most Americans waited out the crisis, listening to the assurances of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Marxian left was convinced that the crisis was systemic. Intellectuals who came of age during the Depression developed the view that the labor movement in America was to be the organizing base for a proletariat. Moreover, many came from working-class backgrounds that contributed to their support of labor.Labor movementUnited StatesHistorySocialismUnited StatesHistoryNew LeftUnited StatesHistoryLabor movementHistory.SocialismHistory.New LeftHistory.331.8/0973Coker Jeffrey W1797095MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910958486103321Confronting American labor4479379UNINA