Hoboes and Teamsters

Book announcement: U of Illinois Press

The University of Illinois Press proudly announces the publication of two new titles in the series The Working Class in American History:

Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930 by Frank Tobias Higbie

Indispensable Outcasts explores the work culture and experience of seasonal migrant workers, their interactions with the sedentary population, and the ways in which these questions were distorted by famous inquiries of the Progressive Era. Higbie examines the role of itinerant laborers in linking the economies of city and countryside and illustrates how these so-called marginal figures were in fact integral both to the communities they briefly inhabited and to the cultural conflicts over class, masculinity, and sexuality they embodied.
Cloth, ISBN 0-252-02794-9, $44.95. Paper, ISBN 0-252-07098-4, $18.95.

Corruption and Reform in the Teamsters' Union by David Witwer

Witwer traces the close historical connection between the teamsters and corruption from the union's beginnings through the McLellan Committee investigation of Jimmy Hoffa's regime. Arguing that the Teamsters Union was by its very nature especially vulnerable to certain forms of corruption, Witwer charts the process by which organized crime came to play a significant role in sectors of the union. He also examines the persistent efforts of labor opponents to manufacture crises of teamster corruption in order to influence popular and legislative opinion.
Cloth, ISBN 0-252-02825-2, $39.95.

Order by calling 800-537-5487 or through the University of Illinois Press website, www.press.uillinois.edu.

The Working Class in American History Series is edited by James R. Barrett, Alice Kessler-Harris, Nelson Lichtenstein, and David Montgomery.

Laurie Matheson, Acquisitions Editor
University of Illinois Press
Email lmatheso@uiuc.edu
Phone 217-244-4685
Fax 217-244-8082