From Booklist , January 1, 1999
"Political pundits have credited a reinvigorated labor movement with helping
the Democrats achieve last fall's surprising election results. This analysis
helps confirm Dark's well-documented assertion that conventional wisdom is wrong
in suggesting that union power is on the decline because of shrinking union
membership rosters. Dark is an associate professor at the Graduate School of
American Studies at Doshisha University in Japan. He looks at the role of labor
in politics from the period beginning in the mid-1960s through today. He considers
the debate over the extent and causes of declining union membership, and he
analyzes the "evolving role of unions in national policymaking and the
course of their alliance with Democratic officeholders." Dark notes that
the presidency of Lyndon Johnson was marked by a process of mutual accommodation,
but that seeds of conflict were sown with the election of Jimmy Carter. He then
traces labor's role in attempts to return a Democrat to the White House, and
favorably portrays Clinton's presidency as the "legacy of the past."
David Rouse