Review by Choice Review
Even after 30 years, the Vietnam War continues to impact many aspects of American life in both obvious and unexpected ways. For unionized workers employed in the nation's construction industry, the economic crises sparked by that conflict undercut their longtime standing as the "aristocrats" of the labor movement. In order to check escalating wage settlements, major corporations and the government encouraged the expansion of a low-wage, nonunion workforce that would undercut the bargaining power of established craft unions. This occurred even as union "hard-hats" attacked antiwar demonstrators on the streets of New York. The author's detailed research and extensive knowledge of the industry are ill-served by the disorganized and sprawling nature of the text. Reading more like a dissertation than a polished monograph, the story is often hard to follow. Extensive statistics further burden the reader, and there is an unusually high number of typographical errors. These technical problems are particularly unfortunate given the importance of the issue being addressed. Linder lays bare the often cynical strategies developed by economic and political elites to profit at the expense of a particular group of highly skilled and very patriotic American workers. Most appropriate for graduate, research, and professional collections. H. Harris; Pennsylvania State University, New Kensington Campus
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
