Who Can Use the Book
Here are some thoughts on how various audiences can use this book.
General Public
Readers will better understand the tribulations facing the middle class and America's workers, why the political debate so often focuses on issues marginally relevant to most people, and what can be done. You'll gain insight into the media and into human dramas occurring across the U.S. You'll alternatively laugh and be moved.
Labor Leaders
Labor leaders will better comprehend why their movement has been in decline, why their efforts to turn things around have borne little fruit, and how they can revitalize the labor movement. You can draw on past political and collective bargaining successes, but you need to revamp your communications strategy and re-engage your members.
Business Management
Business management interests are not necessarily antithetical to a robust labor movement; they've been key partners in the industrial relations system that has so well served the U.S. That said, executives and IR folks will gain a better understanding of where labor has been and is going, and how to improve labor-management relations.
Employees and Workers
Middle-class and working Americans will learn why the dream is slipping away and what can be done about it. It is not by some inexorable law of nature that good jobs are leaving or pensions are being devalued, that elections ignore your concerns even as economic insecurity rises. These issues should, and can, be a public priority.
Educators
This book could be highly useful to academics in at least three fields: labor and business, journalism and communications, and political science. It's full of fresh reporting and original analysis on politics and elections, on communications strategies and how media outlets function, and on union activities and labor-management relations.
Journalists & Communicators
Reporters and editors who deal with labor or with the broader issues of economics, politics or social issues will find themselves recharged and armed with new information and strategies. Indeed, beat reporting in any area will take on a fresh look, given the approaches and tactics discussed in this book.
Political Strategists
Whether your goal is gaining labor's support or countering its efforts, winning primaries or crafting a powerful message that resonates in the Heartland, this book will offer invaluable insight and practical tools to help you better practice your trade.
