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Jefferson Cowie

Jefferson Cowie, associate professor at Cornell University, is the author of Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class, published September 2010 by The New Press. More at www.jeffersoncowie.com.

Recent Articles

The Ghost of Full Employment

In the 1970s, Americans also faced a global recession and double-digit unemployment -- but back then politicians had the courage to think big.

Jefferson CowieSep 28, 2010
Sen. Hubert Humphrey, 1974 (AP Photo)

After nearly two years of bad economic news, which topped off three decades of economic insecurity, perhaps it's understandable that we've grown indifferent to labor-market pains. We shrug at long-term double-digit unemployment. We greet the news of record-breaking poverty with a national yawn. We've come to believe that unconscionable levels of inequality are something natural to the social order.

Pickup Line

Jefferson CowieNov 07, 2003

When a white, patrician guy from a very white state starts talking about Confederate flags, he really ought to be careful. Howard Dean's clumsy recent statement that he wants to court "white folks in the South who drive trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back" is a good example of why. But though he fumbled the rhetoric, burned himself politically and failed to develop his idea in any sophisticated way, the sentiment behind Dean's statement is exactly what the Democratic Party needs.

Solidarity Strikes Out

Jefferson CowieJan 03, 2002

Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean
for Working Americans By Stephen Franklin.

Guilford Press, 308 pages, $23.95

Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of
Labor's Last Century By Howard Zinn, Dana Frank, and Robin D.G. Kelley.

Beacon Press, 174 pages, $23.00

From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of
Labor in the United States By Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty.

The New Press, 364 pages, $27.50