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Podcast: New Books in the American South
Episode: Chad Pearson, "Reform or Repression: Organizing America's Anti-Union Movement" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2015)
Description: Professor Chad Pearson of Collin College, author of Reform or Repression: Organizing America's Anti-Union Movement (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) traces the roots of modern anti-unionism in the U.S. to the early 20th century open shop movement and a push by business interests nationwide to break unions and stall the momentum of organized labor.Historians have characterized the open-shop movement of the early twentieth century as a cynical attempt by business to undercut the labor movement by twisting the American ideals of independence and self-sufficiency to their own ends. The precursors to today's right-to-work movement, advocates of...