Reviews of On the Line
"The
automobile industry has long been regarded as the epitome of the 'American
system of production' by obersvers on bothsides of the Atlantic. The essays
in On the Line extend this tradition by presenting a series of case
studies of the labor market, the organization of work, and labor relations
in the American automobile industry from its origins to 1960...."
"... Stephen
Meyer's 'The Persistence of Fordism, 1900-1960,' extends this interpretation,
arguing that neither the flexible mass production of General Motors in the
interwar years nor automation in the 1950s significantly altered the dominant
Fordist strategy for maximizing output, reducing labor costs, and controlling
workers."
Ronald Edsforth,
Journal of American History, V. (December 1991)
"On the Line
gathers nine provocative essays by scholars who aptly apply the insights from
political science, sociology, economics, industrial relations, and Marxist
theory to the history of auto work in the 20th century.... The strength of
the individual contributions and the coherence of the collection combine to
make On the Line an excellent and stimulating book."
"Perhaps the
centerpiece of On the Line is Stephen Meyer's brilliant 'The Persistence
of Fordism: Workers and Technology in the American Automobile Industry, 1900-1960.'
Defining Fordism mainly as a factory regime, Meyer considers whether the emergence
of a 'mass-class' market in auto blunted tendencies for work to be deskilled
and led to significant 'reskilling' via what Charles Sabel and Michael Piore
have called 'flexible specialization.' On balance, Meyer finds that significant
reskilling did not occur, that 'the basic thrust of automotive technical innovation
has been the "degradation of labor" in the twentieth century.'..."
David Roediger,
Labor History, V. 32 (Summer 1991)
"The auto industry
has been the engine of American capitalism in the twentieth century.... Today,
as labor history blends with business and social history, the auto industry
has remained a central subject of study. No book shows this more than On
the Line."
"In this book,
Nelson Lichtenstein and Stephen Meyer ... have put together nine articles
of interest and originality by nine American and British historians...."
By both the range
and novelty of its topics, On the Line has no equal in providing fresh
and stimulating research of the 'new' labor historians of the auto industry."
Roger Keeran, Labor
Studies Journal, V. 15 (Fall 1990)
"Tracing the
social history of machine tool design and technical innovation in the industry
from the 1900s to the 1950s, Meyer argues that Fordism was flexible enough
to accommodate semi-special and automated machines and challenges scholars
who hail the rise of an allegedly new system of flexible specialization that
will reskill- and not deskill or degrade labor."
"Although the
quality of the essays is mixed and uneven, the best of them represent the
cutting edge scholarship, particularly insofar as labor history since the
1930s is concerned. The collection as a whole is rich in insight, provocative
(and often effective) in argument, and a useful addition to the literature
on unionism and the work process in the twentieth century."
Nancy Gabin, Indiana
Magazine of History, (1990)
"... Editors
Nelson Lichtenstein and Stephen Meyer ... already recognize that drudgery
and discontent are features standard to American auto production. Why it has
come to be true that blue-collar jobs at GM, or Ford, or Chrysler, are not
'good jobs'- except in a financial sense- is in many ways the focus of this
important collection...."
"... Stephen
Meyer, however, emphasizes that Fordism is not essentially about markets or
particular technologies. Taking issue with the more sanguine views of Charles
Sabel and Michael Piore, Meyer argues the Fordism's primary purpose has been
to 'strengthen and extend [managerial] control of the work environment in
a capitalist society.' (74) GM President Alfred Sloan modified pure and simple
Fordism in the 1920s to accommodate changing production needs, but Fordist
tenets nonetheless continue to define American auto production. Monotonous,
machine-paced jobs, and uncertain employment are thus factors not incidental
but integral to auto work under capitalism."
"... On the
Line is a crucial volume for those interested in the auto industry and for
those concerned with the future of auto workers."
Toni Gilpin, International
Labor and Working Class History, V. 38 (Fall 1990)
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