From the depression of the 1890s through World War I, construction tradesman held an important place in San Francisco's economic, political, and social life. Michael Kazin's award-winning study delves into how the city’s Building Trades Council (BTC) created, accumulated, used, and lost their power. He traces the rise of the BTC into a force that helped govern San Francisco, controlled its potential progress, and articulated an ideology that made sense of the changes sweeping the West and the country. Believing themselves the equals of officeholders and corporate managers, these working and retired craftsmen pursued and protected their own power while challenging conservatives and urban elites for the right to govern. What emerges is a long-overdue look at building trades as a force in labor history within the dramatic story of how the city's 25,000 building workers exercised power on the job site and within the halls of government, until the forces of reaction all but destroyed the BTC.

Money, jobs, careers, training-all are topics often overheard in the conversation of middle-class Americans. One of the nation's leading critics of education, the world of work, and the labor movement, Stanley Aronowitz shows how new technologies, labor, and education all are deeply intertwined in our culture and everyday lives. This book reflects Aronowitz's thinking at a time when globalization has brought these connections to broad public attention. Aronowitz argues for the decline of "the job" as the backbone, along with family, of American society. Despite high employment, low wages and job insecurity leave many families at or below the poverty line. The career instability previously experienced mostly by blue-collar workers has spread to middle managers and high-level executives caught in the rapid movement of capital and technologies. In light of these facts, Aronowitz argues for a new social contract between employers and workers.