Selected by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library University of California, Berkeley

• Date: 01 January 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12169
• Published date: 01 January 2017

Recent Publications

Selected by the Institute for Research on Labor and

Employment Library University of California, Berkeley

TERENCE K. HUWE, Dir ect or of L ibr ary & I nfo rma tio n Res our ces

JANICE KIMBALL, Library Assistant

America’s Social Arsonist: Fred Ross and Grassroots Organizing in the

Twentieth Century. By Gabriel Thompson. Berkeley, CA: University

of California Press, 2016. 978-052028083-0. 296 pp. $29.95.

Thompson charts the life of Fred Ross, who instead of becoming a conservative ended up

being one of the most influential community organizers in American history. His activism

began alongside Dust Bowl migrants, where he managed the labor camp that inspired John

Steinbeck’sThe Grapes of Wrath. During World War II Ross worked for the release of

interned Japanese Americans, and after the war, he dedicated his life to building the political

power of Latinos across California. Labor organizing in this country was forever changed

when Ross reached out to a young Cesar Chavez and encouraged him to become an orga-

nizer. Thompson provides a full picture of this complicated and driven man, recovering a

forgotten chapter of American history and providing vital lessons for organizers today.

Civic Labors: Scholar Activism and Working-Class Studies. Edited by

Dennis Deslippe, Eric Fure-Slocum, and John W. McKerley. Cham-

paign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2016. 978-0-252-04049-8. 328

pp. $95.00.

Labor-studies scholars and working-class historians have long worked at the crossroads of aca-

demia and activism, and the contributors to this collection examine the challenges and opportu-

nities for engaged scholarship in the United States and abroad. A diverse roster of contributors

discuss how participation in current labor and social struggles guides their campus and commu-

nity organizing, public history initiatives, teaching, mentoring, and other activities. They also

explore the role of research and scholarship in social change, while acknowledging that intel-

lectual labor complements but never replaces collective action and movement building.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Vol. 56, No. 1 (January 2017). ©2016 Regents of the University of California

Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington

Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK.

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