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"Without Blare of Trumpets" provides a fresh look at the twentieth-century open shop movement. It reveals the central role played in that movement by the National Erectors' Association and by its commissioner, Walter Drew. Fine presents an absorbing account of the union-organized dynamiting campaign and illuminates the critical behind-the-scenes part played by Drew in one of the greatest labor trials in all of American history. This important book adds to our understanding of the building and construction industry employer resistance to unionism, the role of the government in industrial relations, and the impact of the New Deal labor-management relations. "Without Blare of Trumpets" makes a major contribution to the fields of labor history, business history, and industrial relations. It will be of interest to students and scholars in many areas of American history, and to all those interested in the welfare of American jobs and American workers. Sidney Fine is Andrew Dickson White Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Michigan, and the author of numerous books and articles.

The second son of a close-knit Irish-American family, a charismatic politician who championed the underdog yet enjoyed the company of the rich, Frank Murphy was for thirty years an influential figure on the American scene. As Recorder’s Court judge, mayor of Detroit during the Great Depression, governor-general of and high commissioner to the Philippines, governor of Michigan, United States attorney general, and justice of the United States Supreme Court, he played a dramatic role in some of the most significant events of our era. This first volume of what will surely be the definitive account of the life and times of Frank Murphy focuses on the Detroit years, when Murphy brought his courtroom skills to bear on landmark legal battles of the period, forged a New Deal type of coalition that altered the structure of political power in Detroit, and led the city through the darkest days of the Depression. By stressing the interaction between the man and his times, the book presents not only a fully rounded portrait of a fascinating personality but also provides the first detailed coverage of the work of the Detroit Recorder’s Court and an unequaled account of the Depression years in Detroit and the state of Michigan.

In this classic study, Sidney Fine portrays the dramatic events of the 1936–37 Flint Sit-down Strike against General Motors, which catapulted the UAW into prominence and touched off a wave of sit-down strikes across the United States. Basing his account on an impressive variety of manuscript sources, Fine analyzes the strategy and tactics of GM and the UAW, describes the life of the workers in the occupied plants, and examines the troubled governmental and public reaction to the alleged breakdown of law and order in the strikes. In addition, Fine provides vivid portraits of the major figures on both sides of the conflict: Governor Frank Murphy; Alfred Sloan, Jr.; William Knudsen; Robert Travis; Roy, Victor, and Walter Reuther; Homer Martin; and Wyndham Mortimer. The GM sit-down strike marks the close of one era of labor-management relations in the United States and the beginning of another. A half century after its initial publication, Fine’s work remains the definitive account of that momentous conflict. A new foreword by Kim Moody’s revisits Sit-Down in order to demonstrate its continued relevance to today’s unions, workers, and activists.