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Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine's Mighty Paper Industry, by Michael Hillard (Ithaca: Cornell, 2021).

Authors :
McIntyre, Richard
Source :
Rethinking Marxism. Apr2023, Vol. 35 Issue 2, p285-291. 7p.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

Michael Hillard's Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine's Mighty Paper Industry is both a labor history of the paper industry and a political economy of corporate governance and class struggle in the United States. As a labor historian, Hillard has compiled thousands of hours of interviews with paper-industry workers and managers. As a political economist, he persuasively argues that contests over the distribution of surplus from the 1960s forward and shifts in paper-industry ownership led to the strike wave that began in the '60s and spread to every paper mill in Maine by the late 1980s. Rapacious practices by out-of-state owners challenged workers' moral compass as much as their material existence. Responding, paper workers developed a folk political economy and even a folk Marxism, creating the foundation for challenging working-class support for regressive economics. This review provides context for Hillard's claim while partially challenging it in a different context, the United States steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
08935696
Volume :
35
Issue :
2
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Rethinking Marxism
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
163342280
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2023.2183696