dashtaisen's review
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
My favorite part about this book is the balance between telling the stories of people, communities, and movements — including their strengths and flaws
jon_i634's review
5.0
Fight Like Hell's strengths as a brief history of American Labor movements play excellently into it's goals. Kim Kelly did not set out to write the most comprehensive or complete document of labor. Instead, she provides introductions to many different areas of historical (and modern) labor movements -- harvesters, disabled workers, miners, sex workers -- highlighting key figures from each movement that often go under-reported or are not front and center in historical mainstream reporting.
The sheer span of time and number of industries that Kim Kelly covers here absolutely warrants a re-read. There were so many fascinating stories and interesting people that it can be hard to take in at once, especially since the book is structured by industry rather than overall time. However, this structure is vital to the aims of the book to make folks realize that the labor movement can, should, and has been led by marginalized people that are so often left at the sidelines of society.
The key to this book is the perspective that Kim Kelly provides as a modern Leftist looking back on the imperfect and sometimes actively harmful actions of unions and other forms of collectivized labor. She doesn't shy away from labor's failures, both morally and strategically. Often times, the stories Kim Kelly tells end not in a successful contract, but in companies successfully beating back the workers' movements. She doesn't frame this as total defeat, instead leaning into lessons learned and the will of the folks on the front-lines remaining as fiery and passionate as before.
Discrimination of all types are present throughout the book, prejudice rearing it's ugly head time and time again. Racism, homophobia, ableism, and sexism run rampant in past and present labor movements. Kim Kelly posits that this doesn't have to be the norm, that being inclusive and accepting of everyone into the labor movement not only is the morally correct thing to do, but it is a boon and a massive boost to goals of the labor movement. Everyone is entitled to a decent living and basic protections at work, and the more people who realize this -- marginalized or not -- the closer and closer we get to forming the basis of a political movement that will be impossible to ignore and deeply inclusive and progressive.
Highly recommend this book. Reading about the successes and defeats of various workers can be depressing, but Kim Kelly never loses sight of the passion and vigor behind the movements. The individual workers themselves, sacrificing everything for a better world that is hard-fought but possible, make this book a must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of American Leftist politics and movements.
The sheer span of time and number of industries that Kim Kelly covers here absolutely warrants a re-read. There were so many fascinating stories and interesting people that it can be hard to take in at once, especially since the book is structured by industry rather than overall time. However, this structure is vital to the aims of the book to make folks realize that the labor movement can, should, and has been led by marginalized people that are so often left at the sidelines of society.
The key to this book is the perspective that Kim Kelly provides as a modern Leftist looking back on the imperfect and sometimes actively harmful actions of unions and other forms of collectivized labor. She doesn't shy away from labor's failures, both morally and strategically. Often times, the stories Kim Kelly tells end not in a successful contract, but in companies successfully beating back the workers' movements. She doesn't frame this as total defeat, instead leaning into lessons learned and the will of the folks on the front-lines remaining as fiery and passionate as before.
Discrimination of all types are present throughout the book, prejudice rearing it's ugly head time and time again. Racism, homophobia, ableism, and sexism run rampant in past and present labor movements. Kim Kelly posits that this doesn't have to be the norm, that being inclusive and accepting of everyone into the labor movement not only is the morally correct thing to do, but it is a boon and a massive boost to goals of the labor movement. Everyone is entitled to a decent living and basic protections at work, and the more people who realize this -- marginalized or not -- the closer and closer we get to forming the basis of a political movement that will be impossible to ignore and deeply inclusive and progressive.
Highly recommend this book. Reading about the successes and defeats of various workers can be depressing, but Kim Kelly never loses sight of the passion and vigor behind the movements. The individual workers themselves, sacrificing everything for a better world that is hard-fought but possible, make this book a must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of American Leftist politics and movements.
katieconrad's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
3.0
I appreciated this book's focus on marginalized workers and there were certainly some interesting stories. However, the author jumped around so much between people, events and time periods with no cohesive narrative that I found it hard to maintain interest.
cluckenbook's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
joey_schafer's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.75
heidibrunney's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
This is a really important book highlighting voices that aren't often heard. You can tell that the author is passionate about labor and hopeful for the future. However, I found this book to read like a history book, so it was sometimes hard to find the motivation to continue reading. There were a few chapters that really piqued my interest, which helped keep me going. Overall I'm glad this book exists, but I would be hesitant in recommending it to most people.