A Contest of Ideas: Capital, Politics and Labor(Working Class in American History)

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.

About the Author :
Nelson Lichtenstein is MacArthur Foundation Professor in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy. His books include The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business, American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor, and Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit.

Review :
"The depth and breadth of Nelson Lichtenstein's work over more than three decades have distinguished him as one of our most influential and accomplished historians. The extraordinarily insightful essays in this volume illuminate the thinking of an engaged analyst at the top of his craft. They are required reading for anyone who wishes to understand recent U.S. labor history." --Joseph A. McCartin, author of Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America "An outstanding work. Until now no one has created, in a single narrative, the story of how Charles Ives' music moved from the far outer fringes to the central core of American musical culture, and David Paul has done this in an exemplary manner. It is a tour-de-force in both its breadth and its insights."--Michael Broyles, author of Beethoven in America