Economic-union Books

Engelgardt's book, "Letters From The Country" is a fascinating look at Russian peasantry and gentry lifstlyle during the late 19th century. It is a faboulus book that explores the meticulous lifestyles of these countryside peasants. The letters show the simple and surprisingly postive way these people go about farming their villages and taking care of eachother. I highly recommend this book to all interested in Russian history.

Libertarians today are often considered extreme conservatives. Their opposition to taxation and government regulation is widely regarded as a defense of "big business" and the popular press, to the extent they mention libertarians at all, tends to see them as a branch of the Republican Party. But liberarianism is actually a radical philosophy with deep roots in the history of American reform movements, most notably abolitionism and especially the labor movement. Detroit labor organizer Joseph Labadie was a radical printer and tradesman who helped found both the Knights of Labor and the later AFL, particularly its Michigan wing. But Labadie also came to realize that the state was no friend of organized labor. Unlike modern labor historians who try to wrestle America's labor movement into a Marxist paradigm (Philip Foner and his intellectual heirs come to mind here) Labadie came to believe that true socialism would find its best expression in free markets and anarchism. This fabulous biography by Carlotta Anderson covers Labadie's extensive career.

Joseph Labadie was a self educated printer who lived in Michigan and migrated to Detroit. The boom and bust cycle of the early 19th century caused tremendous economic hardship upon workers and Labadie quickly fell in with trade unionists and members of America's very diverse socialist party. He was a founding member of the Knights of Labor and remained throughout his life an advocate for the working poor. But Labadie also felt education was the key to any successful social reform and he practiced what he preached. A careful reader, he soon had mastered the works of Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer, Thoreau, and especially the writings of Josiah Warren and Pierre Joseph Proudhon. Reading the latter, he came to realize that demanding workers receive their fair share of production was in fact a type of property right. (This was the basis of Proudhon's famous paradox, namely that property is both theft and liberty.) The way to insure that workers received their due was to destroy government privileges which allow businesses to skim value from their workers. Ever the idealist, Labadie was not content to simply end government established "monopolies." He also thought that government itself could be abolished once people realized their true interests.

Labadie continued his work for over 50 years. Beyond hs efforts to establish workers' equality he defended those who were victims of an unjust legal system, wrote prodigious amounts of poetry, protested US entry into World War II, and advocated alternative health care. But his greatest legacy was the collection of letters, newspapers, tracts and broadsides that he and his wife collected over the years. These became the basis for the justly famed Labadie collection at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Much of America's radical history would have been lost were it not for this gentleman anarchist who was widely respected by all of Detroit.

Labadie's influence, however, extended far beyond that of his collection. His son Laurence also became a prolific anarchist writer. Long after individualist anarchism had died out and trade unions had succumbed to begging the state for monopolistic privileges of their own, Laurence kept up the lonely fight for freedom from government and proper renumeration of workers. But the 20th century also saw a variety of different issues arise and the younger Labadie addressed these as they came up. Nuclear war, integration of schools, and agrarian reforms including the beginnings of the modern organic health movement all received his incisive commentary. In the process he created a body of work which went on to inspire modern libertarianism.

On the whole then, Anderson's volume is an excellent introduction to American labor history as seen from the perspective of one of its most prominent (but now largely forgotten) proponents. But it is much more than that. This book illustrates why American historians consistently fail to understand and appreciate America's labor movement. Instead of trying to explain how labor was co-opted by "capitalism," they should understand that for 19th century workers, true free market capitalism was their ideal. If anything, the movement was co-opted by an older economic system: merchatilism. Although not widely recognized, this is in fact the economic system that characterizes America today. Ms. Anderson has done an admirable job of presenting an historical alternative that was never tried. She is to be commended for this. All students of American history and especially labor history should read this book.

This is a fine book on the history of the FAT -- Mexico's oldest independent union federation. The book is well researched with interesting insights into how a truly movement-oriented unionism functions on the ground, definitely worth reading.

If you're a fan of Professor John Kenneth Galbraith you'll definitely want to get your hands on a copy of this. It tends to stray away from technicality, as he tends to, and focus on getting the message across.
This book is in an interview format, and is hence even easier to read.
It is exactly what is says, and is very good for an introduction to neo-classical economics, and Galbraith's view of the status-quo trends.

John Sweeney through David Kusnet have given us a new motivation to believe that Labor unions can make a difference in the quality of life for America's working class. The greed of corporations and individuls must be controled. As long as this greed is the driving force of our economy America will never be as great as it could be. America Needs a Raise is not just a title. It is the solution to most of the problems in our working class neighborhoods. John Sweeney's book, America Needs a Raise is full of facts and figurers, but is easy to read and understand. By understanding the value of workers acting collectively to acheive a goal through collective barginning, labor unions are shown to be the solution to the need for a more equal distribution of the wealth of our nation.

Well written book about an often neglected area in our history, the Reuther family and the emergence of the UAW as a factor in the economic, social and political life of America. For anyone interested in a primer of American labor unions, this is a great start concerning the rise of Americas middle class.

This is by far my favorite single-volume book of labor history. It's a well-researched, balanced survey of the 20th century, scholarly yet highly readable. I have assigned it as initial reading in graduate-level labor relations courses to lay a historical foundation, and students have given postive feedback on the book (mirroring my comments above).

The European Court of Justice has consistently held that Member States may not enact measures which hinder effectiveness of the EEC competition provisions. This represents a broad interpretation of the EEC Treaty's competition provisions, which explicitly apply only to the activities of undertakings.

This is one of the most interesting and important recent developments of the Court. However, there is currently a debate regarding the extent to which the Court may now limit the power of Member States to regulate economic activity.

In this book, the decisions of the Court are thoroughly and critically analysed, and the implications of the new doctrine are clearly explained.

Among the state measures involved are minimum or maximum production quotas; prohibitions on agents and brokers transferring their own commissions to their customers; and resale price maintenance systems. -- from book's back cover.

Collaboratively edited by Giuliano Amato (External Professor, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, and Global Law Professor, NYU Law School) and Laraine L. Laudati (Legal Counsel, European Commission and Senior Research Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy), The Anticompetitive Impact Of Regulation is a scholarly, college-level text discussing the profound impacts of governmental regulation on both competitive and non-competitive industries. Institutions that regulate or reform businesses and their undeniably powerful role in Australia, Spain, and more places are among the central topics analyzed in this compilation of assorted essays by a wide range of learned authors. A multifaceted analysis of an issue crucial to global industries today, The Anticompetitive Impact Of Regulation is an invaluable contribution and a highly recommended addition to academic reference collections.

I have opportunity to read the last issue, and I am so happy for new issue becouse I as proffesor of the economics will learn the applied economics from the best teachers of the world. Thank you for the gift Ms.Alan Grifiths and Ms.Stuart Wall.