The Revival of Labor Liberalism [Hardcover]

The Revival of Labor Liberalism is a careful analysis of the twentieth-century decline of the labor-liberal coalition and the important efforts to revive their political fortunes. Andrew Battista chronicles the efforts of several new political organizations that arose in the 1970s and 1980s with the goal of reuniting unions and liberals. Drawing from extensive documentary research and in-depth interviews with union leaders and political activists, Battista shows that the new organizations such as the Progressive Alliance, Citizen Labor Energy Coalition, and National Labor Committee made limited but real progress in reconstructing and strengthening the labor-liberal coalition. Although the labor-liberal alliance remained far weaker than the rival business-conservative alliance, Battista illuminates that it held a crucial role in labor and political history after 1968. Focuses on a fraught but evolving partnership, Battista provides a broad analysis of factional divisions among both unions and liberals and considers the future of unionism and the labor-liberal coalition in America.

The labor-liberal alliance in late twentieth-century American politics

"Battista's well-researched, informative account of labor's political struggles illuminates an important dimension of industrial relations history. Highly recommended."--Choice

"Battista's analysis of attempts to rebuild a labor-liberal coalition provides considerable new information about the role played by union leaders and their reformer counterparts."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review

“[Battista] provides a rich discussion of political rivalries between the dominant and dissident wings of labor, competition over institutional resources, and the coordination of position-taking between labor liberals and non-labor liberals.”--Journal of American History