Fighting Against the Odds: A History of Southern Labor since World War II (New Perspectives on the History of the South) by Timothy J. Minchin

This is a concise yet wide-ranging and accessible synthesis of the experience of southern workers between World War II and the present, and it links its discussion to important debates in the field of southern history today.

Timothy Minchin brings the story of southern labor up to date and places the workers' own experiences in the forefront of his account. He considers the central question of whether the modern South is still distinctive, arguing that the region's lower wages, lower rates of unionization, and legacy of racial segregation continue to set it apart. He stresses that southern workers have a rich history of labor activism, despite the fact that establishing lasting unionism in the region has been difficult.