Word: levison
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...LEVISON PROVIDES an education for middle-class radicals and liberals: he simply describes the working day of an industrial or blue-collar worker. A worker is forced to submit to military authoritarianism while on the job: he or she must do what the foreman demands. Most factories have rules--despite "job enrichment" programs--which prohibit "cat calls, horseplay, making preparation to leave before the whistle sounds, littering, wasting time, and loitering in the toilets." In addition, some companies have the right to discipline workers for "using abusive language" and 'distracting the attention of other employees." Levison sums up the much...
...Levison strikes down many of the misconceptions taken so seriously by a lot of radicals: that the American labor movement is a totally integrated, quiescent partner of the ruling class (it isn't: except for the Vietnam War, labor has consistently pushed for socially liberal legislation, and only two types of unions--the leadership of the Teamsters and the building trades--have really taken the side of capitalism): that workers are more militarist and racist than other Americans (they aren't, but they are angry when upper class students support a foreign army that is attempting to kill their...
...Levison also creditably debunks the recent nonsense we have been hearing, from both "Left" and "Right," about the post-industrial character of the modern work force: of how blue-collar work is declining in magnitude and importance, and service and technical-professional work is replacing it. Levison shows how shoe-shine workers, street sweepers, janitors, mailmen, milkmen, cleaning women, typists, and department store clerks are all placed in the "clerical and sales" or "service" categories of the census, and when both occupational and standard of living factors are taken into account, "working class people" across for all least...
...Levison further discredits the "affluent worker" thesis--the idea of the working class having been bought off of radicalism by wage rises--by a simple glance at statistics...
These are the strong points of Levison's book: a mass of detail and understanding of working class life, and the upholding of the essentially "progressive" character of the American worker. But there are discrepancies that Levison cannot account for, and he conveniently leaves them out of his book. For example, American workers probably are more patriotic and religious than the middle and ruling class. This goes along with their preindustrial dreams, which still have ideological power. Workers in America seem to oppose capitalism in two ways, and Levison only clearly sees one side of their opposition, and ignores...