Overview

For more than a century, municipal socialism has fired the imaginations of workers fighting to make cities livable and democratic. At every turn propertied elites challenged their right to govern. Prominent US labor historian, Shelton Stromquist, offers the first global account of the origins of this new trans-local socialist politics. He explains how and why cities after 1890 became crucibles for municipal socialism. Drawing on the colorful stories of local activists and their social-democratic movements in cities as diverse as Broken Hill, Christchurch, Malmö, Bradford, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Hamilton, OH, the book shows how this new urban politics arose. Long governed by propertied elites, cities in the nineteenth century were transformed by mass migration and industrialization that tore apart their physical and social fabric. Amidst massive strikes and faced with epidemic disease, fouled streets, unsafe water, decrepit housing, and with little economic security and few public amenities, urban workers invented a local politics that promised to democratize cities they might themselves govern and reclaim the wealth they created. This new politics challenged the class power of urban elites as well as the centralizing tendencies of national social-democratic movements. Municipal socialist ideas have continued to inspire activists in their fight for the right of cities to govern themselves.

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9781839767777

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Reviews

Praise for Frontiers of Labor: Historians cannot do experiments with history, but we can do the functional equivalent by way of comparative history. This excellent collection compares Australian and US workplace experiences. We expect the different; these sophisticated labor historians also attend to the surprising extent of 'commonalities,' which seem to have grown over time. -- Melanie Nolan, Australian National University Praise for Frontiers of Labor: In this thought-provoking comparative study the editors have tried to mesh two historiographies. This collection is a must for comparative historians. Rather than having a collection of national case studies, this collection goes the extra mile and shows how useful and critical such transnational history is. -- Colin Davis, University of Alabama at Birmingham * Pacific Historical Review * Praise for Frontiers of Labor: Overall, this is an excellent collection that deserves to be read widely. Those teaching labor history courses should consider assigning it in their advanced undergraduate and/or graduate classes. Its publication is further evidence of the richness and importance of labor history. -- Chad Pearson, Collin College * Labor * Praise for Reinventing The People : Reinventing The People is outstanding. Shelton Stromquist covers the entire range of the movement's concerns, fairly and masterfully synthesizing the most current literature and infusing this synthesis with learned insights derived directly from archival records left behind by leading Progressive reformers. This brilliant and thought-provoking survey of Progressivism should serve as the starting point for students of this movement for many years to come. -- Joseph A. McCartin, Georgetown University Praise for Reinventing The People : But for a reading of the current state of Progressive Era scholarship the place to start is now Shelton Stromquist's account of reform ideas and ambitions between the 1890s and the First World War. Stromquist succeeds best at immersing readers in the progressives' uncertainties: their efforts to talk their way into programs for the common good in the midst of a society as deeply fractured by class, ethnicity, race, and gender, and as shaken by rapid economic change, as at any time in American history. -- Daniel Rodgers, Princeton University * Social Service Review * Praise for Reinventing The People : This is an interesting, ambitious, and challenging study. It should help to reawaken much needed interest in the roles of political economy and class in American history and history more generally. -- Neville Kirk, Manchester Metropolitan University * International Review of Social History * Praise for Solidarity and Survival: An Oral History of Iowa Labor in the Twentieth Century: Shelton Stromquist's incisive interpretation of over one thousand oral histories of union activists in Iowa is a fresh and fascinating contribution to this story. -- John Bodnar, Indiana University * Journal of American History * Praise for Solidarity and Survival: Despite and because of the book's labor loyalties, it has much to offer. The breadth of its attempt to put human faces on the changing labor landscape of the heartland and its depth of detail and emotion are an achievement for which Stromquist and the Iowa Federation of Labor can take justifiable pride. -- Debra E. Bernhardt, Wagner Labor Archives * Labor History * Praise for Labor's Cold War: This is a fine collection that exemplifies the contributions that local studies can make to our broader historical knowledge. The breadth and scope of Labor's Cold Warwill make it a useful introduction for undergraduates, while its engagement with Cold War historiography should appeal to graduate students and specialists. -- John J. Rosen, University of Illinois * Labour History (Australia) * Praise for Labor's Cold War: Labour's Cold War provides a valuable and timely historical reinterpretation that goes to the roots of the Cold War as it affected the American labour movement and its allies. -- Winston Gereluk, Athabasca University * Labour/Le Travail * Praise for Labor's Cold War: This book complicates while it broadens our knowledge of the anticommunist crusade of the Harry S. Truman era, and that is commendable. -- T.H. Anderson, Texas A&M University * Journal of American History * The culmination of Stromquist's lifetime of impressive scholarship on rank-and-file workers and socialist movements, Claiming the City? arrives right on time as we explore the possibilities of transformation at the municipal scale. Astonishingly sweeping in its range of fine-grained case studies, the book teems with comparative insights while it traces transnational connections established by a mobile working class and internationalist commitments. -- David Roediger teaches American Studies at University of Kansas. His books include <i>The Sinking Middle Class?</i>

Praise for Frontiers of Labor: Historians cannot do experiments with history, but we can do the functional equivalent by way of comparative history. This excellent collection compares Australian and US workplace experiences. We expect the different; these sophisticated labor historians also attend to the surprising extent of 'commonalities,' which seem to have grown over time. -- Melanie Nolan, Australian National University Praise for Frontiers of Labor: In this thought-provoking comparative study the editors have tried to mesh two historiographies. This collection is a must for comparative historians. Rather than having a collection of national case studies, this collection goes the extra mile and shows how useful and critical such transnational history is. -- Colin Davis, University of Alabama at Birmingham * Pacific Historical Review * Praise for Frontiers of Labor: Overall, this is an excellent collection that deserves to be read widely. Those teaching labor history courses should consider assigning it in their advanced undergraduate and/or graduate classes. Its publication is further evidence of the richness and importance of labor history. -- Chad Pearson, Collin College * Labor * Praise for Reinventing The People : Reinventing The People is outstanding. Shelton Stromquist covers the entire range of the movement's concerns, fairly and masterfully synthesizing the most current literature and infusing this synthesis with learned insights derived directly from archival records left behind by leading Progressive reformers. This brilliant and thought-provoking survey of Progressivism should serve as the starting point for students of this movement for many years to come. -- Joseph A. McCartin, Georgetown University Praise for Reinventing The People : But for a reading of the current state of Progressive Era scholarship the place to start is now Shelton Stromquist's account of reform ideas and ambitions between the 1890s and the First World War. Stromquist succeeds best at immersing readers in the progressives' uncertainties: their efforts to talk their way into programs for the common good in the midst of a society as deeply fractured by class, ethnicity, race, and gender, and as shaken by rapid economic change, as at any time in American history. -- Daniel Rodgers, Princeton University * Social Service Review * Praise for Reinventing The People : This is an interesting, ambitious, and challenging study. It should help to reawaken much needed interest in the roles of political economy and class in American history and history more generally. -- Neville Kirk, Manchester Metropolitan University * International Review of Social History * Praise for Solidarity and Survival: An Oral History of Iowa Labor in the Twentieth Century: Shelton Stromquist's incisive interpretation of over one thousand oral histories of union activists in Iowa is a fresh and fascinating contribution to this story. -- John Bodnar, Indiana University * Journal of American History * Praise for Solidarity and Survival: Despite and because of the book's labor loyalties, it has much to offer. The breadth of its attempt to put human faces on the changing labor landscape of the heartland and its depth of detail and emotion are an achievement for which Stromquist and the Iowa Federation of Labor can take justifiable pride. -- Debra E. Bernhardt, Wagner Labor Archives * Labor History * Praise for Labor's Cold War: This is a fine collection that exemplifies the contributions that local studies can make to our broader historical knowledge. The breadth and scope of Labor's Cold Warwill make it a useful introduction for undergraduates, while its engagement with Cold War historiography should appeal to graduate students and specialists. -- John J. Rosen, University of Illinois * Labour History (Australia) * Praise for Labor's Cold War: Labour's Cold War provides a valuable and timely historical reinterpretation that goes to the roots of the Cold War as it affected the American labour movement and its allies. -- Winston Gereluk, Athabasca University * Labour/Le Travail * Praise for Labor's Cold War: This book complicates while it broadens our knowledge of the anticommunist crusade of the Harry S. Truman era, and that is commendable. -- T.H. Anderson, Texas A&M University * Journal of American History *

The culmination of Stromquist's lifetime of impressive scholarship on rank-and-file workers and socialist movements, Claiming the City? arrives right on time as we explore the possibilities of transformation at the municipal scale. Astonishingly sweeping in its range of fine-grained case studies, the book teems with comparative insights while it traces transnational connections established by a mobile working class and internationalist commitments. -- David Roediger teaches American Studies at University of Kansas. His books include <i>The Sinking Middle Class?</i> I'm sure that Shelton Stromquist's monumental book will have a lasting impact. It is an inspiring work by a historian of great stature on a very important, but much neglected, topic; it will certainly resonate throughout discussions of history and socialist politics. -- Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History

Author Information

Shelton Stromquist is a historian specializing in labor and social history and a lifelong labor and civil rights activist. He is author or editor of seven books, including Frontiers of Labor, Reinventing “The People”, and Labor’s Cold War. He is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Iowa.

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