Collision Course wins Richard A. Lester Award

On May 17, it was announced that Collision Course won the Richard A. Lester Award for Outstanding Book in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics published in 2011.  The award is presented by the faculty of the Princeton University Industrial Relations Section to "the book making the most original and important contribution toward understanding the problems of industrial relations, labor market policies, and the evolution of labor markets."  A full explanation of the award can be found here.
   The best thing about the award is that it might induce economists and industrial relations scholars to read the book.  It seems to me that we historians don't tend to read enough work in those fields, and in turn economists (the IRS faculty excepted!) don't tend to read enough history.  So my thanks to the Princeton IRS faculty for promoting this cross-over. 

May Day, the Fate of Strikes, and the Relevance of Collision Course

The Sunday, April 29, edition of MSNBC's talk show, "Up with Chris Hayes," aired a fascinating discussion on the fate of the strike over the past 30 years and the future of workers' collective action.  The discussion hosted by Chris Hayes included long-time trade union intellectual and activist, Bill Fletcher Jr., president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, Congressmen Jerry Nadler, and Marina Sitrin, of the Occupy Wall Street Legal Working Group.  The context for the discussion was the call for a May Day general strike by Occupy Wall Street organizers, but the discussion quickly turned to a broad consideration of American workers' loss of the power to strike effectively.  In that discussion Bill Fletcher Jr. strongly recommended Collision Course for clarifying how we got to where we are today.   Check out that discussion here.