Ghost of Full Employment (Am Prospect Op-Ed)

The Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act of the 1970s was a down-right strange piece of legislation. I've been intrigued with its improbability, on several levels, since I first heard about it. In the book I use it to talk about the hollowing out of liberalism and the brittle remnants of New Dealism. In this piece for the American Prospect, however, I use it to show how far we've drifted into doctrinaire waters in our economic thinking: The Ghost of Full Employment | The American Prospect.

Try Before You Buy

Alternet asked for an excerpt from the book, and we provided this section on disco and Saturday Night Fever: How America's Working Class Died on the Disco Dance Floor.  Despite the dorky title someone chose, I do like that particular section. The title of the book was not selected randomly--both the song and the movie contain the argument of the book.

Then, I opened up Alternet on a random day not long after, and there was yet another section of the book,

Jim Cullen's review on HNN

Jim Cullen, scholar of things democratic (including the Bruce), penned this review: History News Network. Nothing beats a review by someone who truly read and engaged the book--a critic who pulls out little details while showing the broad themes. It's a very good analysis that takes a quick jab at the project for its lack of coverage of globalization and world affairs (a totally fair critique). Anyone who

Seventies Studies--American Prospect Review

Had I managed to get this dang book out when it was scheduled, I might have beaten the boomlet of seventies studies. Stayin' Alive is now in the swim, destined for various omnibus reviews like this one by Mark Schmitt in the American Prospect: “When It All Went Wrong.” He calls it "the most enjoyable of the three books" under review, which is nice, but these types of reviews (and I've written a lot of 'em) tend not to go very deep into any single book. I have only myself to blame.

And, truth be told, I haven't sat down with any of the seventies books out this year. I'll discuss Judith Stein's Pivotal Decade when I get the time and courage to see what I missed in my own book.

Salon's Joan Walsh does best Interview/Review ever

Had a fantastic conversation with Joan Walsh just before Labor Day. She was really smart, and the conversation was lively. Her unique hybrid of interview and review was wonderful. See it here: “When Blue-Collar Pride Became Identity Politics.”  She said I was "impossibly fair." My daughter says the exact same thing about me.

My 1970s NYT op-ed: Mixing Pop and Politics (he asked me what the use is....)

It's amazing, and I mean amazing, what a NYT op-ed can do for a book launch. The confluence of the release of Stayin' Alive, Labor Day, and this: “That 70s Feeling” helped bump the project up the charts.

Devo at the End of (Working Class) History

Of all the elements of Stayin' Alive, I found the material around Devo to be the most surprising and interesting. It's a great teaser for the rest of the book, so here's a bit of the Devo stuff plus the "Jocko Homo" video: “Are We Not Men? We are Devo!” The other song that was paired with "Jocko Homo" was "Secret Agent Man"--watch it, it's great. Just in case you don't get the connection to occupational culture, it's pretty obvious in the beginning. "They've given me a number / But they've taken away my name."