Customer Reviews

Walter Reuther: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN DETROIT

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book because, both as a teenager and an adult, I have been intrigued by Walter Reuther. His stirring rhetoric, his youthful, dynamic image, and his sophistication all seemed to set him apart from, and way above, other union leaders. I expected to learn from this book "what made Walter tick," and to better understand the fate of American unionism. I came away with neither hope realized. Instead, I had to slog through an ideologically tinged micro analysis of the history of the UAW, and a depiction of its leader as an opportunist who all too often flinched from making decisions as bold as his rhetoric once he had achieved power. Most disappointing of all, I never came close to understanding what made him tick. While the author concedes in his introduction that it was very difficult to delve below the surface of the public man, surely he could have learned and conveyed more given the prodigious amount of research he conducted, including numerous interviews with close Reuther associates. Add to this the author's writing style--he loves compound sentences with two different messages--and this is a very difficult book to read. Then there is the author's failure to devote more than a modicum of attention to major events in the UAW history--why and how did it merge with the CIO, why did it merge with the AFL, and what precise role did Reuther play in these huge decisions? It says absolutely nothing about the crisis in quality control that so greatly contributed to the decline in popularity of American automobiles, e.g., "Be sure you do not buy a car from Detroit made on a Friday or a Monday!" Finally, in the author's otherwise excellent concluding chapter, he says nothing about the evolution of the economy to a post-industrial era, and the difficulties this poses for maintaining the continued strength and relevance of industrial unionism.

Besides leaving behind a freeway named after him, Reuther is a modern Father of the Radical Left, and has left behind a legacy of Union corruption, crooked party politics, and collective brainwashing. A fascinating book, a fascinating man, and a heck of a story, it's ideologically incorrect in that it exalts Reuther toward legacy status, and it appeases those that believe in the power of government, and the collective mentality of the masses. It's all good and well, says the author, because unions and government usurpation and regulation are all glorious. Horrible mentality, but good writing and research. Reach your own judgements.