Cohen, Lizabeth - Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939

This book examines how it was possible and what it meant for ordinary factory workers to become effective unionists and national political participants by the mid-1930s. We follow Chicago workers as they make choices about whether to attend ethnic benefit society meetings or to go to the movies, whether to shop in local neighborhood stores or patronize the new A & P. As they made daily decisions like these, they declared their loyalty in ways that would ultimately have political significance. When the depression worsened in the 1930s, workers adopted new ideological perspectives and overcame longstanding divisions among themselves to mount new kinds of collective action. Chicago workers' experiences all converged to make them into New Deal Democrats and CIO unionists. First printed in 1990,

Lizabeth Cohen Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies   Her interests have focused on integrating social, cultural, and political history in the twentieth century, probing how people’s social and cultural experiences and identities shaped their political orientations.  In her current research, about which she has lectured and published essays, she is exploring the rebuilding of American cities after World War II by investigating the life and career of a major figure in urban renewal, Edward J. Logue, who worked in New Haven in the 1950s, Boston in the 1960s, and New York City and State from 1968-1985   Read more...