Co-Winner of the 2014 Best Book Award, The Labor Project of the American Political Science Association Ahlquist and Levi are able to show how the ILWU was able and remains able to transcend the life trajectory of its founding leader, Harry Bridges, and establish and maintain a commitment to social activism, political mobilization, and an expanded community of fate. ... Read moreThose who wish to move the labor movement toward this vision of social movement unionism would do well to examine this work for its insights.
Jacob Lesniewski, Social Service Review The study is an interesting and convincing discussion of why an organization may expand its interests and even support causes or ideas that seem to violate the self-interests of its members. It should add significantly to both the literature on collective action and institutional choice.
Choice This is an impressive book that sheds light on an important but poorly understood topic: Why do some organizations engage in solidaristic behavior to promote wider social justice issues, while others focus narrowly on the self-interest of their members?
Evelyne Huber, Perspectives on Politics The book is quite brilliant in terms of the rigor of its analytic argument and its use of a variety of methods to test and further revise core assumptions... The book is itself a major achievement of collective (research) action to which anyone working on these kinds of questions ought to pay special attention.
Carmen Sirianni, Perspectives on Politics An essential part of any trade union program preparing people for leadership roles.
Rowan Cahill, Labour History Show Less