Modern Manors: Welfare Capitalism Since the New Deal

by Sanford M. Jacoby

Book Overview

In light of recent trends of corporate downsizing and debates over corporate responsibility, Sanford Jacoby offers a timely, comprehensive history of twentieth-century welfare capitalism, that is, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691015708
• ISBN13: 9780691015705
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A "WELL-MANORED" LOOK AT LABOR RELATIONS

It is not a very long book, but it contains a lot of information and insight. I guess that is why an academic jury awarded it the Taft Prize for Labor History. The book is all about how american businesses--three in particular: Sears, Thompson, and Kodak--used sophisticated welfare capitalist techniques (and the occasional resort to brass-knuckle tactics) to defeat union organizing drives. There are fascinating glimpses at business history, collective bargaining, the evolution of employee benefits, and a dollop of labor economics thrown in for good measure in this work. The writing is accessible, well-documented, and brimful of well-chosen anecdotes without being unduly folksy or slangy. The depictions of how Sears company officials and staff labor relations professionals worked hand-in-glove with fake company unions and the Teamsters (!?) to blunt the CIO's organizing efforts during and after World War II are particularly good. I have rated this at 5 stars because it was a rewarding read and I thought the (somewhat inadequate) 1 star review ought to be offset.

Sanford Jacoby did an excellent job

I read this book and thought the analysis was extremely accurate and the above commentor was extremely off and accomplished nothing except making this book look horrible