Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America [Paperback]

Joshua B. Freeman (Editor), Steven Fraser (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

The labor movement-reviled, held in contempt, or ignored for a generation-is making itself heard again. How can a newly aroused and combative labor movement restore social justice and economic security to postmodern America? This collection of essays by intellectuals and labor activists does nothing less than challenge the corporate domination of American life. An original Mariner paperback

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joshua B. Freeman is a labor historian at Columbia University and the author of the forth-coming book Working-Class New York..

Steven Fraser is the author of a distinguished biography of labor leader Sidney Hillman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395866820
• ISBN-13: 978-0395866825
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,996,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is great, January 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America (Paperback)

This is an absolutely Fantastic Review of the Columbia labor teach-in. This volume brings together some of America's top labor-left leaders and intellectuals.... a definite must.

4 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Tired Prescription For Social Justice, May 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America (Paperback)

The sub-title of this collection of articles is somewhat misleading. Not only does the book contain more than a hand full of bias-laden pieces but many of the same are written by people who fall well outside the parameters of "intellectuals" and maintain thier living from the labor movement. But my main disapointment with this book is that it is weighted down with the same tired polemics and solutions for accomplishing "social justice" (whatever that might be as the year 2000 approaches) as we have seen over and over for the past several decades. Also readers should note that this volume appeared before the recent troubles the AFL-CIO encountered with the Democratic fundraising scandals. Those troubles have done much to reveal AFL chief John Sweeney and Take-the-Fifth Trumpka and their "shining promise" for change as little more than a slick public relations coup. If organized labor had a real program for change and economic democracy then it would not be necessary for it to attempt to buy its way into the mainstream of a corrupt process that could care less about the American working person. Lane Kirkland might have been preoccupied with having dinners in Europe but Sweeney needs to understand that dinners on Capitol Hill are no less useless. What is needed is an objective book that poses and addresses the crucial question of whether or not unions in their current incarnation have not outlived their usefulness. Reading this book and comparing its contents to the present turmoil within the labor movement only underscores the fact that what labor lacks is a serious intellectual base, the mystique and vehicle for moving any kind of social change agenda in America, and most of all, the will to move forward.