For All the People

We just got in a new book here at FFT by John Curl that we're pretty excited about. It looks to tell the "hidden history of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America" -

... Seeking to reclaim a history that has remained largely ignored by most historians, this dramatic and stirring account examines each of the definitive American cooperative movements for social change—farmer, union, consumer, and communalist—that have been all but erased from collective memory. Focusing far beyond one particular era, organization, leader, or form of cooperation, For All the People documents the multigenerational struggle of the American working people for social justice. With an expansive sweep and breathtaking detail, the chronicle follows the American worker from the colonial workshop to the modern mass-assembly line, ultimately painting a vivid panorama of those who built the United States and those who will shape its future. ... read more

Actually, I should say mostly new. Somewhere in the piles of books I have at home there's a copy of the original slim pamphlet that Curl put out something like 10 years(?) ago. I remember enjoying alot then, as I had just started working in my first collective and it was good to feel a connection with history in what we were doing. I'm definitely looking forward to reading this much expanded edition.

(I do find it pretty ironic, though, that this book was published by PM Press, a press the owner founded because he didn't want to work in a collective anymore. Go figure.)
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• Check out this review of the book from the Berkeley Daily Planet
• Here's an interesting interview with Curl at Znet
• Interested it getting a copy? Order it via our website!