New Books Received

The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh—By James L. Flannery. By the turn of the century, most states had enacted laws banning children from working at night and, coupled with compulsory education requirements, had greatly reduced the use of children in industry. In western Pennsylvania, however, child labor was deeply entrenched, and Pennsylvania lawmakers lagged far behind the rest of the nation. In The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh, James L. Flannery presents an original and compelling examination of legislative clashes over the singular issue of the glass house boys. He reveals the many societal, economic, and political factors at work that allowed for the perpetuation of child labor in this industry and region. 248 pages. Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8229-4377-8/10:0-8229-4377-8. Price $35.00. University of Pittsburgh Press. www.upress.pitt.edu.

Fundamentals of Labour Administration—By Giuseppe Casale and A. Sivananthiran. This volume spells out the main principles of labour administration, and the challenges facing it in implementing the Decent Work Agenda. It describes ways in which these challenges can be met through policy, organization, coordination and management and identifies some best practices in selected countries. 92 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-92-2-122999-5. Price $28.00. International Labour Organization. www.ilo.org/publns.

Human Resource Economics and Public Policy—By Charles J. Whalen. This new book from the W.E. Upjohn Institute, Human Resource Economics and Public Policy: Essays in Honor of Vernon Briggs Jr., Charles J. Whalen, editor, pays tribute to Briggs and his enduring mark on the study of human resources. The chapters, by his students and colleagues, explore and extend Briggs’s work on employment, education and training, immigration, and local labor markets. His unwavering emphasis on institutional reality, public policy, and economic dynamics animates the entire collection. 305 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-88099-359-3. Price $20.00. W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. www.upjohninst.org.

Employment Regulation in the Workplace—By Robert K. Robinson, Geralyn McClure Franklin, and Robert F. Wayland. This book endeavors to present a comprehensive, but practical, view of the regulatory environment under which practicing managers must operate. The material in this textbook is presented from the viewpoint that the HR professional is the employer’s representative and is, therefore, responsible for protecting the employer’s exposure to litigation through monitoring activities and viable employee policies. 448 pages. Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7656-2350-8. Price $99.95. M.E. Sharpe Inc. www.mesharpe.com.

Changing Poverty, Changing Policies—By Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger. This book documents how economic, social, demographic, and public policy changes since the early 1970s have altered who is poor and where antipoverty initiatives have kept pace or fallen behind. The authors’ focus on pragmatic measures that have real possibilities of being implemented in the United States not only provides vital knowledge about what works but real hope for change. 384 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-0-87154-310-0. Price $42.50. Russell Sage Foundation. www.russellsage.org.

Workers and Welfare—By Michelle L. Dion. By focusing on organized labor and its powerful role in effecting institutional change, Workers and Welfare chronicles the development and evolution of Mexican social insurance institutions in the twentieth century. Michelle L. Dion’s study shows how the labor movement, up until the 1990s, was instrumental in expanding welfare programs, but has since become largely ineffective. Dion investigates the causes of the recent retrenchment in social benefits and the government’s focus on poverty alleviation. 328 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-0-8229-6045-4. Price $27.95. University of Pittsburgh Press. www.upress.pitt.edu.

Spark—By Frank Koller. While factories in the Midwest are shutting their doors, Lincoln Electric remains a rare success story. The company has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the recent credit crash. In this insightful and spirited investigation , journalist Frank Koller digs deep into Lincoln Electric’s inner workings—revealing surprising lessons about what happens when managers view their employees as valued assets rather than costs. 272 pages. Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58648-795-9. Price $25.95. PublicAffairs. www.publicaffairsbooks.com.

Go to the Worker: America’s Labor Apostles—By Kimball Baker. Go to the Worker: America’s Labor Apostles is a popular history of the Catholic social-action movement, a group of priests and laypeople who, in the 1930s and 1940s, helped workers organize as part of the group’s pursuit of spiritual and social justice. This ecumenical movement fought for labor-employer cooperation, with the support of many labor-management professionals, and its worker-empowerment message is as timely as today’s newspaper. 276 pages. Paperback ISBN: 978-0-87462-749-7. Price $30.00. Marquette University Press. http://www.marquette.edu/mupress/.