In comments to my Bill Monroe post, RM notes that the great Wade Mainer died today at the age of 104. I assumed he had died a long time ago. A legendary banjo player, Mainer was one, if not the, last major links with the...
Author: Erik Loomis
Why do I not find it the least bit surprising that the "Tigers" in the LSU Tigers is not named for the animal but for the Louisiana Tigers, a notoriously.
The Father of Bluegrass turns 100 today. More than any other musician in American history, Bill Monroe can claim to have invented a genre of music. He took elements of.
Good piece on the two-tiered wage system at UAW organized auto plants. Like a lot of labor people, I am really torn by this. On the one hand, it has helped get more people decent (if not now great) jobs. It has helped keep the...
Is the current Congress the worst ever for environmental issues? Almost certainly, though you could probably say the same thing for many issues. Worst Congress ever? There's a lot of.
I hesitated to post my thoughts on September 11, both because everyone is inundated with remembrances and because so many people were affected much more directly than I was (including.
From a Times piece on the growth of food carts selling junk food outside of high schools that have cut out bad food from the school menus: “It’s not going to do much,” said Nathan Estrada, 15, a sophomore, who had a sandwich from home...
An exchange on the conservation movement, from the Ladies Home Journal, November 1911: THE REQUEST FROM THE MOTHER: I wonder if you ever realize, you who live and move in.
New Mexico governor Susana Martinez (and someone who I'd recommend as a good Intrade bet for the Republican VP nominee) has made her name for cracking down on illegal immigration,.
We sometimes don't immediately think of the history of slavery as labor history, but of course, it's absolutely fundamental to any understanding of labor history in the American South (and to a lesser extent in the North) both before and after the Civil War. This...
The Longshoremen's strike in Longview, Washington, which I have discussed before, has gone hard-core, with union members "unofficially" deciding to bust up the offending company's property. The company, EGT, violated.
I've generally supported Barack Obama's labor strategies. His appointment of people like Craig Becker to the NLRB have made real changes in working people's lives. Yet Obama has been deafeningly.