STRUGGLE & LOSE; STRUGGLE & WIN: The United Mine Workers Union

What is it that makes me tick? Is it power I am after, or am I a Saint Francis in disguise, or what?"" Both, say Levy and Richards, answering John L. Lewis' own challenge with more punch and subtlety than one expects at this level. And if the authors resort to psychology in order to fathom Lewis, their history of the disastrous Boyle regime, which culminated in Boyle's conviction for the murder of opponent lock Yablonski and his family, is an instructive case study in interest-group politics which casts both Ralph Nader and Nixon's Secretary of Labor George Schultz in revealing roles. One might wish for a closer look at working conditions and opinion among the rank and file, but there is an enlarging perspective on the mine workers' relationship to the labor movement as a whole. And the moderately candid approach to personalities and policies is a welcome change of pace from the rather stuffy, impersonal quality of so much labor history for younger readers.