| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Waterfront Revolts: New York and London Dockworkers, 1946–61. By Colin J. Davis. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. xii, 246 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-252-02878-3.)

This is a fine attempt at comparative labor history. In his introduction, Colin J. Davis posits that "comparative history can strengthen U.S. history by situating it in an international context" (p. 3). He studies the New York City and London experiences of dockworkers,

outlining their respective work cultures; the sites of conflicts with employers, unions, and states; the creation of alternative rank and file movements; and how the response by government molded such conflicts. (p. 6)

The book focuses mostly on the 1948 strikes in New York and London. These strikes, with a reprise in 1951 New York and in 1954 London, were rank-and-file insurgencies that expressed frustrations with the union leadership (Davis calls it estrangement). He goes on to analyze and draw lessons from the struggles by opposition tendencies against the leadership of the dockworkers' labor unions, challenging the idea of national exceptionalism and peculiarism.

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