A former trade-union organizer and Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York traces the decline and reemergence of American labor over the last quarter-century.. Noted labor expert Stanley Aronowitz provides a definitive assessment of the last twenty-five years of labor history. He argues that unions have historically been important defenders of economic justice and that they remain so, even in today's booming economy. In particular, Aronowitz views the increasing disparity between the very rich and the working poor as evidence of the increasing need for labor's active role in America's economic and social agenda.