INDUSTRIAL VALLEY

by Ruth McKenney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 1939

This for the Middletown market -- and tops! It seems almost incredible that anyone could write My Sister Eileen and win all through laughter -- and then turn right about face and stir her audience to the depths with this extraordinarily moving case history of a town (Akron) and its people. From the early days of the depression through a life and death industrial struggle in which the C I O won its first major victory, down to the present with a surface calm of apparently adjusted labor relations. It is first of all a human document, through a day by day commentary on high high lights and events as they affected the lives of workers and industrialist over a six years' span. Perhaps the very fact of her being a skilled humorist rests on an underlying sense of the tragic. In any case, she has caught the courageous spirit of the group and the individuals who composed it. Accompanying the human interest aspects, there is a challenge to the social significance of it all. Her description of our first sit down strike is a masterpiece. Here is an essential book for everyone interested in labor problems -- and should prove an opening wedge to social awareness through its very readability, for those who might sheer away from its serious implications. Remember the success of I Went To Pit College several years ago? This should catch the same popular market -- and is far and away a more important book.

Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1939

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939

Categories: NONFICTION