Ronald Kent, whose posts on the history of workers movements and U.S. labor are among the most learned and insightful, posted this commentary on two important recent works which should be of interest to our readers
Norman Markowitz
Date: 2013-02-08 15:36
From: "Ronald Kent" <rckent@tds.net>
Dear H-LABOR: Please announce to your list. Thank you for your time and
consideration. Peace, Ronald C. Kent, ILHA Editor
_____
The International Labor History Association (ILHA) is pleased to announce
the ILHA Book of the Year Award for 2012. The volume, The Production of
Difference, published by Oxford University Press (2012), is by David R.
Roediger and Elizabeth D. Esch. Covering the period 1830-1930 while offering
a series of case studies, the book examines race management, with a
transnational trajectory. Roediger and Esch locate a key fulcrum implemented
by U.S. managers of labor, including slave owners, to enhance profits and
undermine labor solidarity at home and abroad.
The authors investigate the early use of race management during pre-Civil
War years, later tracing related developments in the post-Civil War years
with special attention paid to anti-Chinese initiatives, railroad practices,
mining and meatpacking, domestic and agricultural labor. Furthermore, the
authors analyze the issue of race management in the pre-World War I years
and its transnational variations in the Philippines, South Africa, and
Panama. The intellectual apparatus employed to valorize racialized personnel
management receives concerted attention.
Roediger and Esch document the structurally embedded character of race
management within slavery and capitalism, revealing its conception,
application, and ruthless intent within production sectors across temporal
boundaries. Amply documented with engaging footnotes, the volume offers a
superb rendering that will no doubt become a source of information and
reference to labor historians and students of labor history.
The ILHA also wishes to announce an Honorable Mention Award to Hans Coppi
and Stefan Heinz for their recently edited work, Der vergessene Widerstand
der Arbeiter, Gewerkschaftler, Kommunisten, Sozialdemokraten, Trotzkisten,
Anarchisten und Zwangsarbeiter (Dietz Verlag, Berlin, 2012). Appearing
currently only in German, the book features a collection of essays on the
German Resistance in World War II. The title translates roughly as The
Forgotten Resistance of Workers, Unionists, Communists, Social Democrats,
Trotskyists, Anarchists and Forced Laborers.
Extensively footnoted and offering new research and information, the volume
edited by Coppi and Heinz on the anti-fascist Resistance in and among
leftist groupings includes as well mention of Polish and French forced
laborers. Dr. Hans Coppi, Jr. is the son of Hans Coppi, Sr., a German
anti-fascist murdered by the Nazi regime. Dr. Stefan Heinz teaches at the
Free University of Berlin. Although it lacks a subject index, the book
offers a useful name index with extensive biographical summaries of
Resistance figures. Readers of German labor history will find this volume
essential in attaining a more complete understanding of the many labor
Resistance groups during World War II.
Ronald C. Kent, ILHA Editor
Sara H. Markham, ILHA Board Member
From: "Ronald Kent" <rckent@tds.net>
Dear H-LABOR: Please announce to your list. Thank you for your time and
consideration. Peace, Ronald C. Kent, ILHA Editor
_____
The International Labor History Association (ILHA) is pleased to announce
the ILHA Book of the Year Award for 2012. The volume, The Production of
Difference, published by Oxford University Press (2012), is by David R.
Roediger and Elizabeth D. Esch. Covering the period 1830-1930 while offering
a series of case studies, the book examines race management, with a
transnational trajectory. Roediger and Esch locate a key fulcrum implemented
by U.S. managers of labor, including slave owners, to enhance profits and
undermine labor solidarity at home and abroad.
The authors investigate the early use of race management during pre-Civil
War years, later tracing related developments in the post-Civil War years
with special attention paid to anti-Chinese initiatives, railroad practices,
mining and meatpacking, domestic and agricultural labor. Furthermore, the
authors analyze the issue of race management in the pre-World War I years
and its transnational variations in the Philippines, South Africa, and
Panama. The intellectual apparatus employed to valorize racialized personnel
management receives concerted attention.
Roediger and Esch document the structurally embedded character of race
management within slavery and capitalism, revealing its conception,
application, and ruthless intent within production sectors across temporal
boundaries. Amply documented with engaging footnotes, the volume offers a
superb rendering that will no doubt become a source of information and
reference to labor historians and students of labor history.
The ILHA also wishes to announce an Honorable Mention Award to Hans Coppi
and Stefan Heinz for their recently edited work, Der vergessene Widerstand
der Arbeiter, Gewerkschaftler, Kommunisten, Sozialdemokraten, Trotzkisten,
Anarchisten und Zwangsarbeiter (Dietz Verlag, Berlin, 2012). Appearing
currently only in German, the book features a collection of essays on the
German Resistance in World War II. The title translates roughly as The
Forgotten Resistance of Workers, Unionists, Communists, Social Democrats,
Trotskyists, Anarchists and Forced Laborers.
Extensively footnoted and offering new research and information, the volume
edited by Coppi and Heinz on the anti-fascist Resistance in and among
leftist groupings includes as well mention of Polish and French forced
laborers. Dr. Hans Coppi, Jr. is the son of Hans Coppi, Sr., a German
anti-fascist murdered by the Nazi regime. Dr. Stefan Heinz teaches at the
Free University of Berlin. Although it lacks a subject index, the book
offers a useful name index with extensive biographical summaries of
Resistance figures. Readers of German labor history will find this volume
essential in attaining a more complete understanding of the many labor
Resistance groups during World War II.
Ronald C. Kent, ILHA Editor
Sara H. Markham, ILHA Board Member
