<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>In this classic interpretation of the 1930s rise of industrial unionism, Gary Gerstle challenges the popular historical notion that American workers' embrace of "Americanism" and other patriotic sentiments in the post-World War I years indicated their fundamental political conservatism. He argues that Americanism was a complex, even contradictory, language of nationalism that lent itself to a wide variety of ideological constructions in the years between World War I and the onset of the Cold War. Using the rich and textured material left behind by New England's most powerful textile union--the Independent Textile Union of Woonsocket, Rhode Island--Gerstle uncovers for the first time a more varied and more radical working-class discourse.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>[A] fascinating new book. . . . One of the great feats of this book is Gerstle's ability to show that intellectual history is not some ethereal, separable history of abstract 'ideas' but is rather a product of class relations born at the workplace.<b>---Dana Frank, <i>In These Times</i></b><br><br>[A] pathbreaking, impeccably researched history. . . . The sheer scope of this study . . . is breathtaking.<b>---Richard M. Vallely, <i>International Labor and Working Class History</i></b><br><br>A remarkably rich and thoroughly rewarding study of life, labor, and politics in a 20th century industrial community.<b>---Stuart M. Blumin, <i>Labor History</i></b><br><br>Important. . . . To read Gerstle . . . is to think a little more freely of this country's possibilities. . . . [T]he sobriety and sheer depth of Gerstle's engagement with real Americans' struggles spells relief from tributes to 'forgotten warriors' that read like old placards in a May Day parade. Study 'the people' here first.<b>---Jim Sleeper, <i>Los Angeles Times Book Review</i></b><br><br>Scintillating. . . . [Gerstle] uses the method [of social history] with striking originality to tackle the thorny questions of Americanism.<b>---Alan Dawley, <i>The Nation</i></b><br><br>The most provocative account of working-class politics in the 1930s and 1940s.<b>---John Bodnar, <i>Journal of American History</i></b><br><br>The transformation of ethnically insular workers into passionate American activists is an important story, which Gerstle recounts with unusual subtlety. . . . No one has explored the meaning of Americanism to workers with more intelligence and insight.<b>---Alan Brinkley, <i>New York Review of Books</i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Gary Gerstle</b> is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Historical Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of the forthcoming book <i>American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century</i> (Princeton).
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