The Union of Their Dreams Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement

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ISBN: 9781608190997 | 1608190994
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 9/28/2010

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A generation of Americans came of age boycotting grapes, swept up in a movement that vanquished California's most powerful industry and won dignity and contracts for impoverished farm workers. Four decades later, United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez's likeness graces postage stamps, and schools and streets are renamed in his honor.But the real stories behind la causa--both its historic accomplishments and tragic disintegration--have remained buried. Pulitzer-winning journalist Miriam Pawel has changed our understanding of the UFW forever, crafting a powerful, poignant account of a movement and the people who made it. A tour de force of reporting and a spellbinding narrative,The Union of Their Dreamsis a major contribution to the history of labor, civil rights, and immigration in modern America.

“One of the most important recent books on California history, Miriam Pawel has undertaken a thankless task: telling a complicated and in many ways shattering truth … exhaustively researched, by turns sympathetic and deeply shocking … Pawel describes the reality of the movement, not just during the well-studied and victorious period that made it famous, but during its long, painful transformation to what it is today. Her story of one man and his movement is a story of how the ’60s became the ’70s.”—Caitlin Flanagan, Atlantic “Thoroughly researched and thoroughly unsentimental … Pawel is writing outside the hagiography”—Wilson Quarterly “Groundbreaking and moving”—Dissent “A long shelf of books, many bordering on hagiography, has told the union's story just as Chavez wanted it told. The Union of Their Dreams is an astringent corrective to the party line…. this remarkable book…. is an engrossing narrative that is both tragic and inspiring.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A provocative glimpse into recent history, Pawel's exposé offers deep insight into the nature of mass movements.”—Los Angeles Times “In many ways, by illuminating the lives of those who worked so hard for decades, Pawel’s book provides a kind of blueprint for today’s activists. It is a chronicle of great struggle, but also of hope…. The Union of Their Dreams takes an important step toward reminding Americans that, three decades on, La Causa very much remains.” —San Francisco Panorama "Pawel, drawing on and greatly expanding the research she did for the L.A. Times series, has come back for a second dipping with her engrossing and just as exquisitely assembled book… Her tack this time is quite different. Instead of a dry, almost legalistic indictment of the failings of the UFW, her approach now feels like the script of the great Costa-Gavras film The Confession, or like Arthur Koestler’s classic anti-Stalinist memoir Darkness at Noon.”—TruthDig.com “A revealing celebration of activists in the glory days of a movement for change.”
—Kirkus Reviews “Pawel combines document research with recent interviews with several former directors, legal staff, and rank and file, allowing her to present a thorough and convincing treatment of an important chapter in American history.”—School Library Journal “Steeped in the recordings and primary source materials from these years, Pawel recreates the era—but with an awareness of the ironies and contradictions made plainer by hindsight…. The book’s unexpected scar tissue and its arc of decline present some contrast to the continuing if dispersed legacy trumpeted in Randy Shaw’s recent Beyond the Fields, but these accounts are ultimately complementary and necessary historical revaluations of this important labor and social history.”—PublishersWeekly.com

“In this sympathetic yet courageously honest narrative, a seasoned reporter presents the history behind the legend of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement. At the same time, Miriam Pawel pays tribute to the dreams of a generation of young Americans dedicated to social justice and the dignity of labor.”—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California, author of Golden Dreams and California: A History

“This incisive and sensitive study makes a major contribution to our understanding of Cesar Chavez and the poor people’s movement he led. Moving beyond hagiography and mythology, Miriam Pawel gives new insight into the heroic struggles of some of the ordinary people who committed themselves, against unimaginable odds, to an extraordinary cause.”—David G. Gutiérrez, University of California, San Diego

“The Union of Their Dreams captures in fascinating detail the human stories of diverse people and how they committed themselves to the movement. It also reveals the tensions and dissensions that were a part of the union and its leadership after the early years of its formation. This is an interesting and provocative book that expands our understanding of the union from inside out.”—Albert M. Camarillo, Stanford University

“Avoiding polemic or sensationalism, The Union of Their Dreams recounts for the first time how a cult of personality around Cesar Chavez (influenced by the practices of the sinister Synanon organization) ultimately betrayed the courage of the workers in the fields and the trust of a veteran organizing staff. The stories of lost campaigns and internal purges are painful, but they also transmit hugely important lessons about the necessary dialectic of militancy and democracy in labor struggles.”—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

“Miriam Pawel combines the skills of an historian and an investigative reporter to tell the story of the remarkable people upon whose dreams the farm worker movement was established, moved forward, and forever changed the nation.”—William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West

“Anyone interested in political idealism, trade unions, leadership, mass movements, and even the Barack Obama phenomenon will have much to think about after reading this enthralling account of great accomplishment gained and lost.”—Nicholas von Hoffman, author of Hoax and Citizen Cohn

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The Union of Their Dreams Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement

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