Unions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents: Seeking Social Change in the Twentieth Century

(Hardback)

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Social change advocates won a remarkable series of victories during the 20th century. This study examines both successful and unsuccessful efforts, ranging from the women's suffrage movement of the 1910s to the divisive debate between Gore and Nader supporters during the 2000 election. Halpern details the ingredients essential to shaping progressive campaigns. While left-wing activists sustained grass roots movements and worked with allies in left-center coalitions, trade unions energized by progressive activists gave the efforts institutional weight with crucial assistance from Democratic presidents committed to liberalism. Frequently facing repression, left-wingers nevertheless managed to pass their values on to their children, who in turn sustained new sets of social movements. Leftists worked alongside other progressives to form left-center coalitions on issues such as Civil Rights and labor law reform. Influenced by liberalism, Roosevelt, Johnson, and Kennedy gave crucial assistance to the social change process. Shying away from liberalism, Carter and Clinton and Vice President Gore failed to provide comparable assistance, disappointing progressive activists and unions and leading to important setbacks. Whether the Democratic Party will once again seek to elect a president with a liberal vision to assist a revitalized labor movement, a newly energized left, and left-center coalitions in the social change process remains to be seen.

Reviews

.,."A judicious and prodigiously researched account of the efforts of the labor movement and radical organizations to ally with Democratic presidents in the struggle for economic and social justice....A genuine contribution to the history of the contemporary left in the United States as well as the current political possibilities."-Michael Wreszin Professor Emeritus, Queens College
"Martin Halpern's Unions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents is persuasively written; his overriding theme advocates a peaceful caring society with civil rights and equal opportunities for people regardless of race, gender or sexuality. The book covers strengths and weaknesses in presidential candidate campaigns, the labor movement, the formation of various unions, various improvements to society such as the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Women's Liberation Movement....The book is well researched using newspapers, books, statistical abstracts, interviews, correspondence and conviently referenced at the end of each chapter, as well as containing a comprehensive bibliography....[a]n interesting persuasive book that will be useful to Univeristy students and researchers as an overview of unions and Democratic presidents."-49th Parallel
[T]his study is best suited to reading lists for graduate courses in twentieth-century U.S. labor and radical history. Instructors in relevant courses at both levels will be able to mine the book for useful lecture material beyond the familiar, such as the context and causes of Kennedy's executive order, as well as for what the book itself reveals about left-wing values (including the author's) and historical scholarship in the service of activist progressive ends. Some who teach specifically about the history and dynamics of social movements might organize all or part of a course around Halpern's conceptualization of the necessary conditions for substantial social change and assign students to test it for themselves.-The History Teacher
[U]nions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents is recommended for left-leaning readers looking to recall earlier successes and for those readers looking for a detailed look at particularly important developments in twentieth-century labor history.-Michigan Historical Review
[U]seful to historians of that subject, both for what it has to say about specific episodes in modern American labor history and, more generally, for what it reveals about how self-described leftists view American politics since the New Deal.-Arkansas Historical Quarterly
For students of postwar labor and politics, this book will be a gem: Halpern's judgments are sound, and he is in full command of the facts.-The Journal of American History
Halpern traces the successes and failures of the left/progressive movement in the US during the 20th century....This analysis provides useful insight into the political direction the nation appears to be headed early in the 21st century. Recommended. Academic collections, upper-division undergraduate through faculty.-Choice
Martin Halpern's Unions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents is persuasively written; his overriding theme advocates a peaceful caring society with civil rights and equal opportunities for people regardless of race, gender or sexuality. The book covers strengths and weaknesses in presidential candidate campaigns, the labor movement, the formation of various unions, various improvements to society such as the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Women's Liberation Movement....The book is well researched using newspapers, books, statistical abstracts, interviews, correspondence and conviently referenced at the end of each chapter, as well as containing a comprehensive bibliography....[a]n interesting persuasive book that will be useful to Univeristy students and researchers as an overview of unions and Democratic presidents.-49th Parallel
"This study is best suited to reading lists for graduate courses in twentieth-century U.S. labor and radical history. Instructors in relevant courses at both levels will be able to mine the book for useful lecture material beyond the familiar, such as the context and causes of Kennedy's executive order, as well as for what the book itself reveals about left-wing values (including the author's) and historical scholarship in the service of activist progressive ends. Some who teach specifically about the history and dynamics of social movements might organize all or part of a course around Halpern's conceptualization of the necessary conditions for substantial social change and assign students to test it for themselves."-The History Teacher
"Unions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents is recommended for left-leaning readers looking to recall earlier successes and for those readers looking for a detailed look at particularly important developments in twentieth-century labor history."-Michigan Historical Review
"Useful to historians of that subject, both for what it has to say about specific episodes in modern American labor history and, more generally, for what it reveals about how self-described leftists view American politics since the New Deal."-Arkansas Historical Quarterly
"[U]nions, Radicals, and Democratic Presidents is recommended for left-leaning readers looking to recall earlier successes and for those readers looking for a detailed look at particularly important developments in twentieth-century labor history."-Michigan Historical Review
"[U]seful to historians of that subject, both for what it has to say about specific episodes in modern American labor history and, more generally, for what it reveals about how self-described leftists view American politics since the New Deal."-Arkansas Historical Quarterly
"For students of postwar labor and politics, this book will be a gem: Halpern's judgments are sound, and he is in full command of the facts."-The Journal of American History
"Halpern traces the successes and failures of the left/progressive movement in the US during the 20th century....This analysis provides useful insight into the political direction the nation appears to be headed early in the 21st century. Recommended. Academic collections, upper-division undergraduate through faculty."-Choice
"[T]his study is best suited to reading lists for graduate courses in twentieth-century U.S. labor and radical history. Instructors in relevant courses at both levels will be able to mine the book for useful lecture material beyond the familiar, such as the context and causes of Kennedy's executive order, as well as for what the book itself reveals about left-wing values (including the author's) and historical scholarship in the service of activist progressive ends. Some who teach specifically about the history and dynamics of social movements might organize all or part of a course around Halpern's conceptualization of the necessary conditions for substantial social change and assign students to test it for themselves."-The History Teacher

Author Bio

MARTIN HALPERN is Professor of History at Henderson State University in Arkansas. He is the author of UAW Politics in the Cold War Era and the lead author of Minority Health in Michigan: Closing the Gap.