Reworking Race
The Making of Hawaii's Interracial Labor Movement
Columbia University Press
Reworking Race
The Making of Hawaii's Interracial Labor Movement
Columbia University Press
In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Hawai'i changed rapidly from a conservative oligarchy firmly controlled by a Euro-American elite to arguably the most progressive part of the United States. Spearheading the shift, tens of thousands of sugar, pineapple, and longshore workers eagerly joined the left-led International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) and challenged their powerful employers.
In this theoretically innovative study, Moon-Kie Jung explains how Filipinos, Japanese, Portuguese, and others overcame entrenched racial divisions and successfully mobilized a mass working-class movement. He overturns the unquestioned assumption that this interracial effort traded racial politics for class politics. Instead, he shows how the movement "reworked race" by developing an ideology of class that incorporated and rearticulated racial meanings and practices.
Examining a wide range of sources, Jung delves into the chronically misunderstood prewar racisms and their imperial context, the "Big Five" corporations' concerted attempts to thwart unionization, the emergence of the ILWU, the role of the state, and the impact of World War II. Through its historical analysis, Reworking Race calls for a radical rethinking of interracial politics in theory and practice.
In this theoretically innovative study, Moon-Kie Jung explains how Filipinos, Japanese, Portuguese, and others overcame entrenched racial divisions and successfully mobilized a mass working-class movement. He overturns the unquestioned assumption that this interracial effort traded racial politics for class politics. Instead, he shows how the movement "reworked race" by developing an ideology of class that incorporated and rearticulated racial meanings and practices.
Examining a wide range of sources, Jung delves into the chronically misunderstood prewar racisms and their imperial context, the "Big Five" corporations' concerted attempts to thwart unionization, the emergence of the ILWU, the role of the state, and the impact of World War II. Through its historical analysis, Reworking Race calls for a radical rethinking of interracial politics in theory and practice.
Reworking Race will be recognized eventually as one of the major works on the history of labor in Hawai'i. Jonathan Y. Okamura, The Journal of American History
Well written, impressively researched, and theoretically insightful, Reworking Race is an important contribution to the field. Francisca Oyogoa, Industrial and Labor Relations Review
A smart, well researched, and amply documented monograph on a fascinating and instructive case. Chris Rhomberg, Mobilization
Sound research, crisp narrative, and innovative reworking of the concept of 'interracialism'... an important contribution. Jose M Alamillo, Washington State University, American Historical Review
Theoretically and empirically rich, Reworking Race is necessary reading in the sociology of race/ethnicity and in labor and political sociology. Sharmila Rudrappa, American Journal of Sociology
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Origins of Capital's Contentious Response to Labor
Race and Labor in Prewar Hawai'i
Shifting Terrains of the New Deal and World War II
The Making of Working-Class Interracialism
ConclusionNotes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Origins of Capital's Contentious Response to Labor
Race and Labor in Prewar Hawai'i
Shifting Terrains of the New Deal and World War II
The Making of Working-Class Interracialism
ConclusionNotes
Bibliography
Index
Read the >Introduction to Reworking Race (pdf)
Winner, 2006 Best Book Award
Winner, 2007 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award
Winner, 2008 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award
Winner, 2007 Race, Labor, and Empire Book Award