Brueggemann Coauthors "Racial Competition and Class Solidarity"

John Brueggemann, associate professor of sociology, is coauthor of Racial Competition and Class Solidarity (2006, State University of New York Press).

Racial Competition and Class Solidarity examines union organization efforts and strikes from the American Civil War to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, focusing on how cooperation or competition between races affected the outcomes.

According to the publisher, the authors use labor market theory and game theory to compare the effect of race relations on organizing drives and strikes. Among their findings was that racial competition was worst when minority groups had recently immigrated, or employers "used racist paternalism."

In other cases, solidarity overcame racial schism when CIO unions employed black organizers and officials. The result of the so-called "miners' formula" is that CIO unions are now highly integrated and "among the country's ... most powerful advocates of working class interests."

The book combines the analytical tools of history and sociology to understand specific connections between race and class in American history.

Class conflict has been pervasive since the nation's founding. ... As workers battled collectively to secure decent wages, safe working conditions, and even the right to unionize, the contours of their struggle were frequently etched in racial terms. Eligibility for union membership often stopped at the color line ... Given the historical salience of race and class prior to the Civil Rights Movement, when were people able to pursue common objectives across racial lines? How did different groups balance the frequently competing imperatives of class and racial identity? What factors promoted interracial cooperation, and what are the implications for improving race relations in the future?

Brueggemann adds: "This is an inquiry into what makes people think of themselves in terms of class position, racial category or both. It is also a study of how these social divisions play in to class conflict, sometimes favoring the hand of labor and sometimes strengthening the position of capital. We have tried to use the most sophisticated analytical methods to sort out a number of unsubstantiated claims that have been made in previous research."

More at the publisher's Web site.