Colin J. Davis - Böcker

During the decade that followed World War II, American and British dockworkers undertook a series of militant revolts against their employers, their governments, and even their union leaderships. In this in-depth comparative study, Colin Davis explores the upheavals on both sides of the Atlantic. Davis examines the dynamics of work and work stoppage along the two pivotal waterfronts, showing how issues of race, organized crime, union affiliation, working conditions, and Cold War politics shaped waterfront uprisings and the state's response to them. He explores other key differences between American and British labor, such as the cultural forces that led to the emergence of rank-and-file dockworkers' movements, degree of governmental oversight, methods of obtaining work, and specifics of ethnic and racial identification. An eye-opening look at dockworker influence in postwar industry, Waterfront Revolts reveals how workers and trade unions directly influenced Cold War politics, the economy, and culture across national borders.

Workers who loaded and unloaded ships have formed a distinctive occupational group over the past two centuries. As trade expanded so the numbers of dock labourers increased and became concentrated in the major ports of the world. This ambitious two-volume project goes beyond existing individual studies of dock workers to develop a genuinely comparative international perspective over a long historical period. Volume 1 contains studies of 22 major ports worldwide. Built around an agreed framework of issues, these 'port studies' examine the type of workers who dominated dock labour, their race, class and ethnicity, the working conditions of dockers and the role of government as employer, arbitrator and supporter. The studies also detail how dockers organized their labour, patterns of strike action and involvement in political organizations. The structure of the port city is also outlined and descriptions given of the waterside environment. These areas of investigation form the basis for a series of 11 thematic studies which comprise Volume 2. Drawing on the information provided in the port studies, these essays identify important aspects and recurring themes, and explain how and why particular cases diverge from the rest. The final chapter of the book synthesizes the various approaches taken to offer a model which suggests several configurations of dock labour and presents suggestions for future research. This major scholarly achievement represents the most sustained attempt to date to provide a comparative international history of dock labour. An annotated bibliography completes this essential reference work.

Essays from scholars of labor and migration that examine changes in the Southern workplace after World War IIIn the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the American South became very diverse very quickly. New businesses and job opportunities in the region drove this growth, brought an influx of capital, and attracted residents from other parts of the country and the world. After World War II, traditionalism in the South lived side-by-side with a South embodying internationalism, diversity, and movement.In this volume, a group of historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists examine the intersection of labor history and migration studies to explain the South's dynamism in both urban and rural settings during this time. Under the editorship of Robert Cassanello and Colin Davis, these essays examine the transformation of the Southern workplace after World War II, the impact of migration, and the corporations and industry that relocated below the Mason-Dixon line.