Labor and the American Left

Van Elteren (social sciences, Tilburg U., the Netherlands) assesses the history of US labor politics, framing his arguments in relation to (and against) the conventional "labor exceptionalism" thesis emphasizing a lack of class consciousness and class conflict in American history. Analyzing the politics of labor from the 1870s to the present, he emphasizes institutional, ideological, and political factors that have constrained the emergence of a labor-based socialist politics in the United States and concludes with a consideration of whether it is possible for social movement activism based on mass disruption, defiance, and demonstrative protest to emerge as an alternative to mainstream organized labor's reliance on electoral strategies. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Mel van Elteren is an emeritus associate professor of social sciences at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and taught at Utrecht University and Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has published several books and numerous articles on topics involving sociology, social psychology, social history and cultural studies, with special interest in American society, politics, labor and culture in a global context.