In the 1970s, textile workers joined forces with a small band of grassroots activists and organizers and challenged the most powerful industrial interest in the heart of Dixie-the cotton textile manufacturers. They located disabled workers and organized them, employing the full range of interest- group tactics, and they creatively engaged in legislative, administrative, and judicial lobbying as well as protest actions-with remarkable success. Robert E. Botsch recounts the history of the Brown Lung Association and details the interaction of the major participants in the rise-and ultimately the failure-of the organization. A once all-powerful and politically dominant textile industry lost its public relations battle as it lost business to cheaper labor markets abroad. Medical researchers, policy makers, and regulators had difficulty communicating. State government regulations often cost workers their health and their means of support. Organizers allowed their followers to become too dependent on their ability to raise grant monies. Working-class southerners found energy and courage in the face of age and sickness but were incapable of the self-discipline necessary for successful long-term organization. Organizing the Breathless reveals the dramatic negative impact of the Reagan years on the disabled workers and their organization and draws lessons from the experience of other interest groups. Botsch examines central issues-the value of membership incentives, the complexities of relationships with organizers, and the perennial question of the relative importance of organization versus protest. This book will interest political scientists and historians as a strong study of labor issues, interest groups, and the South.
Botsch samples current attitudes of southern blue-collar workers, both black and white, toward work and race and questions whether these workers can overcome racial barriers to form a populist-style coalition aimed at improving their shared economic condition. A strong sense of individualism, a general distrust of the government, and a failure to see links between daily personal problems and political choices are major deterrants to political action. Originally published in 1981. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
Botsch samples current attitudes of southern blue-collar workers, both black and white, toward work and race and questions whether these workers can overcome racial barriers to form a populist-style coalition aimed at improving their shared economic condition. A strong sense of individualism, a general distrust of the government, and a failure to see links between daily personal problems and political choices are major deterrants to political action. Originally published in 1981. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
In the 1970s, textile workers joined forces with a small band of grassroots activists and organizers and challenged the most powerful industrial interest in the heart of Dixie-the cotton textile manufacturers. They located disabled workers and organized them, employing the full range of interest- group tactics, and they creatively engaged in legislative, administrative, and judicial lobbying as well as protest actions-with remarkable success. Robert E. Botsch recounts the history of the Brown Lung Association and details the interaction of the major participants in the rise-and ultimately the failure-of the organization. A once all-powerful and politically dominant textile industry lost its public relations battle as it lost business to cheaper labor markets abroad. Medical researchers, policy makers, and regulators had difficulty communicating. State government regulations often cost workers their health and their means of support. Organizers allowed their followers to become too dependent on their ability to raise grant monies. Working-class southerners found energy and courage in the face of age and sickness but were incapable of the self-discipline necessary for successful long-term organization. Organizing the Breathless reveals the dramatic negative impact of the Reagan years on the disabled workers and their organization and draws lessons from the experience of other interest groups. Botsch examines central issues-the value of membership incentives, the complexities of relationships with organizers, and the perennial question of the relative importance of organization versus protest. This book will interest political scientists and historians as a strong study of labor issues, interest groups, and the South.
Hardbound. The purpose of this book lies outside the usual framework of studies devoted to technology in a given branch of industry. Its main objective is to show how, in only two decades, the highly specialized telephone switching industry was completely transformed and how it revolutionized its manufacturing processes and its products, a phenomenon largely unknown to the public. The change was so drastic that it has been compared to the metamorphosis of the insect which progresses from the caterpillar phase to that of the butterfly.The second aim of the book is to show how the change occurred within the context of the major electronic revolution of recent decades, following the inventions of the transistor and integrated circuits.
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