Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Benton's work stands as a model history with a particular focus that expands in both breadth and chronology into a useful account for academics and contemporary policy makers. Highly recommended." --
Choice"Benton brilliantly traces the politics and mistakes that marked the 1970s. . . A model of scholarship. Moreover, it is a work that must be read to understand the fall of the economic order by the 'new era of globalization' and the political consequences that accompanied it." --
New York Labor History Association“James Benton engages with a complex topic that most labor historians have traditionally avoided: U.S. trade policy. An ambitious study taking us from the Roosevelt administration to the present,
Fraying Fabric traces the evolution of that policy, its ultimately devastating impact on the textile and apparel sectors, and the response of business and organized labor to the challenge of global trade. Its provocative arguments should provoke overdue debate in the fields of labor history and public policy.”--Eric Arnesen, author of
Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality"In
Fraying Fabric: How Trade Policy and Industrial Decline Transformed America, historian James C. Benton provides a richly detailed analysis of the impact of trade policy on textile and apparel manufacturing in the United States, and the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of unions in these closely related industries to limit the flow of imports." --
H-Net ReviewsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
- From Free Trade to Populism: How Did We Get Here? 1974-2016
- Clashing Aims: The New Deal, Labor, and Tariff Reform, 1933-45
- New Challenges: Labor’s Limits, International Recovery, and Industrial Decline, 1945-60
- New Domestic and International Frontiers: John F. Kennedy, Labor, and Trade, 1961-63
- Trade Deals, Import Challenges, and Shifting Political Alliances, 1964-69
- Fighting to Win: Organized Labor Challenges Trade Policy, 1969-70
- Labor Strikes Out: The Mills Bill, Burke-Hartke, and the Trade Act of 1974
Epilogue: Where Do We Go from Here?
Notes
Index
