This book is an overview of the development of the American working class through three major eras in the 20th century. The first era was that of the Second Industrial Revolution and the rise of an immigrant industrial working class, from 1900-1930. The second era was that of the New Deal Political Order. This era began in the 1930s with the New Deal Social Contract, which legitimized labor unions as full partners in labor-management relations and government intervention in the economy. The New Deal Political Order lasted until the 1970s, when it was replaced by the third era, the Neoliberal Political Order. This era featured the decline labor's power and influence as the ascendant Neoliberal Political Order championed unregulated free markets, unrestricted global free trade, and pushback against the administrative state created by the New Deal. The book also offers a vision of a new future for the labor movement, and for America.
