A rigorous and balanced examination of a sadly neglected figure in the American labor movement.
A debut book delivers a searching history of a labor leader’s relentless persecution by the U.S. government.
Most Americans probably haven’t heard of Harry Bridges, despite the fact that he was one of the most consequential, and vilified, labor leaders in the nation’s history. Born in Australia, he found work in the United States as a longshoreman in San Francisco, and was drawn to the power of unionization as a tonic to absolutely appalling employment conditions. But in the 1930s, even the existing unions were essentially co-opted by bullying ship owners, who ultimately had the last say on wages and working environments. Bridges not only refused to join the “Blue Book” union, as it was dubbed, but advocated for a centralized union for the whole West Coast, too large and unified to be intimidated. He also progressively championed fully democratic procedures and representation, financial transparency, and an end to racial discrimination. In a move that made him infamous, Bridges led a mammoth strike that strangled the industry for nearly three months, during which police fired haphazardly into an open crowd of demonstrators. The strike was ultimately successful, unionizing the totality of the West Coast. But the government then embarked on a 20-year campaign to brand Bridges a member of the Communist Party, and have him exiled from the country. Afrasiabi follows this prosecutorial hunt like an investigative journalist, which includes four separate trials and the involvement of the Supreme Court. He scrupulously produces evidence that the government spied on Bridges, suborned perjury, and essentially falsified evidence. The author, admirably judicious in his presentation, acknowledges that Bridges’ rhetoric often seemed like boilerplate Communist fare. The labor leader expressed convictions that aligned with Communist ideology, and even turned to the party for help on occasion. But Afrasiabi produces persuasive evidence that Bridges was never a full-fledged party member, and was simply too practical to be overly infatuated with philosophical platforms. As Bridges once said: “As far as I have delved into them they are pretty much a matter of theory, and our hands are full with practical matters...I generally stay with the practical matters.” This is a meticulous and measured account of both an intriguing man and a historically significant movement.
A rigorous and balanced examination of a sadly neglected figure in the American labor movement.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
