Class Struggle and the New Deal: Industrial Labour, Industrial Capital and the State (Studies in Historical Social Change) - Hardcover

Levine, Rhonda F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700603735 ISBN 13: 9780700603732

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1989

Synopsis

In this reassessment of New Deal policymaking, Rhonda Levine argues that the major constraints upon and catalysts for FDR's policies were rooted in class conflict. Countering neo-Marxist and state-centred theories, which focus on administrative and bureaucratic structures, she contends that too little attention has been paid to the effect of class struggle. Levine analyzes the balance of class forces during the Great Depression and the ways in which they shaped the formulation, implementation and consequences of federal policies.

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Review

"This book is an exemplar of how to proceed in historical sociology. Levine makes a major theoretical contribution to recent debates about the autonomy of the state and the relative impact of business and labor on state policies. Her core argument is a judicious and well-doicumented critique of the state-centered approach, which alone makes her study both controversial and important. Well reasoned and thoroughly documented, Levine's book is also exceptionally well written and should be read by anyone interested in twentieth-century American history, historical sociology, theories of the state, and policy develpment."--Jill S. Quadago, author of The Transformation of Old Age Security: Class and Politics in the American Welfare State

-This book is an exemplar of how to proceed in historical sociology. Levine makes a major theoretical contribution to recent debates about the autonomy of the state and the relative impact of business and labor on state policies. Her core argument is a judicious and well-doicumented critique of the state-centered approach, which alone makes her study both controversial and important. Well reasoned and thoroughly documented, Levine's book is also exceptionally well written and should be read by anyone interested in twentieth-century American history, historical sociology, theories of the state, and policy develpment.---Jill S. Quadago, author of The Transformation of Old Age Security: Class and Politics in the American Welfare State

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700603735
• ISBN 13: 9780700603732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232