On the very first page of Writing the Wrongs we find out that pioneering labor journalist Eva McDonald Valesh “dyed her hair red into her eighties, smoked black twisted cigars and wore green silk pajamas.” But Valesh was more than a colorful figure—she was a pivotal and pioneering figure in the rise of labor journalism at the turn of the 20th century. Author Elizabeth Faue, professor of history at Wayne State University, tells the story of how Valesh broke through the gender barriers to become “the right-hand man” of AFL President Samuel Gompers and a highly successful investigative journalist, organizer, feminist leader and public speaker for labor reform. Paperback, $19.95 from Cornell University Press.
In The Mind at Work, Mike Rose, a professor at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, pays tribute to the skills and intelligence of people who are often dismissed as “blue-collar” or “in service.” Rose argues that by undervaluing the intellectual demands of everyday work—the lightning-fast calculations of the waitress or the complex spatial mathematics of the carpenter, for example—our society pays a terrible social cost that distorts public education and minimizes democracy. Hardcover, $24.95; paperback, $15.00 from The Penguin Group.
WEBSIGHTING
UAW’s Union Made: Consumer Buying Guide for 2006 Cars and Trucks provides information for consumers who want to purchase 2006 cars and trucks produced by workers who enjoy the benefits and protections of a union contract. All vehicles on this list are made in the United States or Canada by members of the UAW, Canadian Auto Workers or IUE-CWA.
MUSIC
Spoken word artist Chris Chandler’s latest CD,American Storyteller: Volumes I and II, with music by David Roe and the Orchestra, mixes humor with politics to tell stories of solidarity among workers and other tales of a New American Revival. The CD includes “The Pageant of the Paterson Silk Strike.” Two-CD set $25 from the Labor Heritage Foundation.
