Episodes

  • It's STILL the Economy, Stupid! Labor and the Working Class in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century

    It's STILL the Economy, Stupid! Labor and the Working Class in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century
    Jul 23 2022
    Episode 31, the series finale, takes up the matter of the back half of the 1990s. Pettengill begins with the culture wars of the 1990s. These wars exacerbated the broader divisions of Americans at the end of the twentieth century. The episode then moves on to explore the role of the renewal of immigration and its impact on the labor movement. Pettengill ends the episode with the Election of 2000. As he notes, the end of the century left labor and working-class American with more question than answers.
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    45 mins
  • "The New World Order": the End of the Cold War, Recession, and the Onset of Clintonian Centrism

    "The New World Order": the End of the Cold War, Recession, and the Onset of Clintonian Centrism
    Jul 17 2022
    Episode 30 covers the back half of the 1980s with the election George Herbert Walker Bush. Bush was ushered in on the wave of Reaganism. He promised not to raise taxes. But, as Pettengill notes, he went back on that promise and raised taxes two years into his term. Simultaneously, communism fell in Eastern Europe. Even still, there were hot spots of trouble across the world. In 1990 Sadam Huessien invaded the oil-rich nation of Kuwait, resulting in the Persian Gulf War. Bush emerged from this affair as a very popular president. But Pettengill points out that along with a cease fire came an economic recession that ultimately cost Bush and the Republicans the White House. The election of Bill Clinton was a referendum on the economy. Clinton won but not with a popular majority. Moreover, the ranks of organized labor labor remained suspicious of Clinton's neo-liberal approach to government. Their suspicions were well-founded as one of the first orders of business was the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The results were deeply troubling for American workers and organized labor.
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    47 mins
  • Voodoo Economics: Economic Recovery, Reaganomics, and the Widening Wealth Gap in America

    Voodoo Economics: Economic Recovery, Reaganomics, and the Widening Wealth Gap in America
    Jul 11 2022
    Episode 29 explores the early years of the Reagan presidency, especially with respect to the president's attempt to bring the economy back. What came to be known as Reaganomics involved cutting taxes at the top so that capital might "trickle down" to the grassroots of the American economy. Pettengill notes that, either directly or indirectly, Reaganomics was deeply problematic for the American working class. In ways it contributed to the continued erosion of blue-collar jobs. Organized labor's responded by resorting to economic nationalism. The idea of "buy American" ultimately failed to address the crisis for working Americans and contributed to the further divisions in the ranks of the labor movement.
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    44 mins
  • Rusted Dreams: Recession, Political Upheaval, and the onset of Ronald Reagan

    Rusted Dreams: Recession, Political Upheaval, and the onset of Ronald Reagan
    Jul 10 2022
    Episode 28 picks up with the Carter presidency. The oil embargo of the mid-1970s devastated the American economy. Carter worked hard to address the crisis but it was never quite enough. Ronald Reagan was ushered in as president largely because he promised to pay attention to the issues that mattered most to working families. In fact, both the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) and the Teamsters actually endorsed Reagan for president in 1980. But one of Reagan's first orders of business was to fire the striking PATCO workers, who had walked out on strike in 1981, as they were engaged in an illegal work stoppage. The failure of the PATCO strike was disastrous for organized labor. As Pettengill notes, this strike was the beginning of the end for organized labor as large employers saw the event as a green light to break up the unions.
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    50 mins
  • Uncivil Wars: the Rebirth of Conservatism and Further Divisions within the Working Class

    Uncivil Wars: the Rebirth of Conservatism and Further Divisions within the Working Class
    Jul 4 2022
    Episode 27 takes up the contining facture of the American working class. Pettengill takes listeners through three elements of the culture wars of the 1970s that were terribly divisive amongst working Americans. Struggles concerning "traditional American values," "forced" busing, and affirmative action all divided workers and put the organizations that represented them in a difficult position as the 1970s came to a close. On a brighter note, Pettengill ends this episode with a discussion on the victory of the United Farm Workers, which continued to connect the struggle for labor rights to human rights.
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    44 mins
  • Stayin' Alive! Watergate, Labor Feminism, and the Onset of Economic Adversity

    Stayin' Alive! Watergate, Labor Feminism, and the Onset of Economic Adversity
    Jul 3 2022
    In Episode 26, Pettengill examines the fallout from the Watergate scandal and notes that it demoralized Americans' faith in politics. All that said, he also observes that the aftermath of Watergate did not end activism in the U.S. In particular, this episode focuses on the development of the women's movement, which essentially grew out of the labor movement. But there was an enormous amount of diversity throughout the women's movement, especially when it comes to class. Labor feminism, as it came to be known, combined labor activism with women's quest for full citizenship rights in the U.S. Pettengill concludes this episode with an overview of the economic crisis brought on by the 1974 oil embargo. The crisis would have deep implications for workers and organized labor.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Working-Class War: Vietnam and a Redefinition of Working-Class Americanism

    Working-Class War: Vietnam and a Redefinition of Working-Class Americanism
    Jun 26 2022
    Episode 25 confronts the issue of the Vietnam War and the role it played within working-class America. Pettengill notes that the war created deep divisions within the ranks of American workers. For the white working class, it continued to push them to embrace political conservatism. For workers of color, the war served to demonstrate the deep hypocrisies inherent in American political life. Mixed into all of this was Martin Luther King's Poor People's March to Washington. What started out as an effort to unionize the sanitation workers of Memphis ended in the assassination of MLK. By 1968, these events set the stage for a political transition.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Coalition of Conscious: Civil Rights Activism and the Connections to the Labor Movement

    Coalition of Conscious: Civil Rights Activism and the Connections to the Labor Movement
    Jun 24 2022
    Episode 24 delves into the connections between the labor movement and civil rights. Pettengill outlines the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement and then explains how organized labor supported it. To that end, the emergence of the United Farm Workers (UFW) plays a central role. Labor leaders such as Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez organized their struggle around the concept of La Causa - social justice. Pettengill underscores the role that community activism played in getting California's grape growers to recognition the union. This activism crested in the 1965 national grape boycott. Pettengill concludes that much of this grassroots activism resulted with Lyndon Johnson dedicating the nation to reforming civil rights in the United States.
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    50 mins