The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945-1968

Download or read book The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945-1968 written by Kevin Boyle and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UAW engaged in these struggles in an attempt to build a cross-class, multiracial reform coalition that would push American politics beyond liberalism and toward social democracy. The effort was in vain; forced to work within political structures - particularly the postwar Democratic party - that militated against change, the union was unable to fashion the alliance it sought. The UAW's political activism nevertheless suggests a new understanding of labor's place in postwar American politics and of the complex forces that defined liberalism in that period. The book also supplies the first detailed discussion of the impact of the Vietnam War on a major American union and shatters the popular image of organized labor as being hawkish on the war.