The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race, and Deindustrialization in Philadelphia
Guian A. McKee
Abstract
Contesting claims that postwar American liberalism retreated from fights against unemployment and economic inequality, this book reveals that such efforts did not collapse after the New Deal but instead began to flourish at the local, rather than the national, level. With a focus on Philadelphia, it illuminates the central role of these local political and policy struggles in shaping the fortunes of city and citizen alike. In the process, the book tells the remarkable story of how Philadelphia's policymakers and community activists energetically worked to challenge deindustrialization through ... More
Contesting claims that postwar American liberalism retreated from fights against unemployment and economic inequality, this book reveals that such efforts did not collapse after the New Deal but instead began to flourish at the local, rather than the national, level. With a focus on Philadelphia, it illuminates the central role of these local political and policy struggles in shaping the fortunes of city and citizen alike. In the process, the book tells the remarkable story of how Philadelphia's policymakers and community activists energetically worked to challenge deindustrialization through an innovative series of job-retention initiatives, training programs, inner-city business development projects, and early affirmative action programs. Without ignoring the failure of Philadelphians to combat institutionalized racism, the account of their surprising success draws a portrait of American liberalism that evinces a potency not usually associated with the postwar era. Ultimately interpreting economic decline as an arena for intervention rather than a historical inevitability, the book serves as a reminder of policy's potential to combat injustice.
Keywords:
jobs,
liberalism,
Philadelphia,
New Deal,
deindustrialization,
training programs,
racism,
unemployment,
business development
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2008 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226560120 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: March 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226560144.001.0001 |
