Which Side Are You on?

by Geoghegan, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9781565848863
• ISBN10: 1565848861
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-26
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

The comic, poignant, one-of-a-kind book that "reads like an enthralling novel" (Studs Terkel). When it first appeared in hardcover, Which Side Are You On? received widespread critical accolades, and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. In this new paperback edition, Thomas Geoghegan has updated his eloquent plea for the relevance of organized labor in America with an afterword covering the labor movement through the 1990s. A funny, sharp, unsentimental career memoir, Which Side Are You On? pairs a compelling history of the rise and near-fall of labor in the United States with an idealist's disgruntled exercise in self-evaluation. Writing with the honesty of an embattled veteran still hoping for the best, Geoghegan offers an entertaining, accessible, and literary introduction to the labor movement, as well as an indispensable touchstone for anyone whose hopes have run up against the unaccommodating facts on the ground. Wry and inspiring, Which Side Are You On? is the ideal book for anyone who has ever woken up and realized, "You must change your life."

Table of Contents

1 Solidarity	3	(6)
2 Mountains of the Moon	9	(31)
3 Before the Lean Years	40	(19)
4 In the Heart of Basic Steel	59	(25)
5 Always Bring a Crowd	84	(38)
6 Rank and File	122	(15)
7 In the Cage	137	(24)
8 Officers and Lawyers	161	(21)
9 Life in the Theater	182	(22)
10 Free Trade	204	(27)
11 Bread and Wine	231	(20)
12 Citizens	251	(25)
13 To the Medinah Temple	276	(9)
Epilogue	285	(4)
Afterword	289