A review by margaretefg
Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class by Jefferson R. Cowie

5.0

This book was a great clarifier for me, focusing how I think about this period and the entire period from the 1930s to the Reagan era (and today). I'm still wrapping my mind around Cowie's idea that New Deal liberalism was more an exceptional moment, than a new order. The book is very convincing, well-researched, weaving together stories of the rise and fall of unions (and union infighting, union politicking, etc); politics (great descriptions of the McGovern campaign and of Nixon); race and class; movies and songs.