Jennifer Delton, is Professor of History at Skidmore College. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University, and her work focuses on the political, racial, and economic history of the United States in the twentieth century. In addition to The Industrialists, which is featured in her Rorotoko interview, she is the author of Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party (University of Minnesota Press, 2002), Racial Integration and Corporate America, 1940-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and Rethinking the 1950s: How Anticommunism and the Cold War Made America Liberal (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
I would urge the reader to look at the Reagan chapter first. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I suggest the Reagan era was a low point for NAM. During the 1980s, deindustrialization and a hostile takeover wave decimated NAM’s membership and hence its influence. While Reagan advocated cutting taxes and regulations, policies favored by NAM, he offered nothing to help the U.S. manufacturing sector or small manufacturers, which were NAM’s bread and butter. Instead, Reagan’s policies benefited the rising service and finance sectors to the detriment of manufacturing.But I would also recommend the chapter “A Changing Workforce,” which examines how NAM embraced and helped operationalize the civil rights legislation of the 1960-70s, including affirmative action. Was it in NAM’s interests to do so? Yes, absolutely, but does that make it any less notable?I had the most fun writing about the epic battles between NAM’s ultra-conservatives and its slightly less conservative “moderates,” who saw the practical benefit to industry of accepting labor unions (while still curbing their power) and lowering tariffs. One of the more moderate influences in the organization was an executive secretary named Vada Horsch, one of the few female characters in the story. A fervent internationalist, her interests and influence on NAM in the 1940s and 1950s is evident in the archives and it was fun to give voice to NAM staff members, many of whom were women, since so much of the scholarship is focused on NAM leaders, who were overwhelmingly male heads of corporations.Finally, take a look at chapter 12, which features interviews with former NAM president Jerry Jasinowski, whose 1990s-era NAM helped U.S. manufacturers and factory workers adjust to just-in-time production and international supply chains, thus reviving productivity and American manufacturing.I was finishing up this book as Donald Trump won the Republican nomination and then the presidency, promising to restore American manufacturing—by reinstating tariffs and closing immigration. Over its 125-year existence, NAM had consistently favored lower tariffs, more liberal immigration policies, and the free and open exchange of goods and services. It had adjusted to the changes wrought by its own support for globalization. So Trump’s promises to reinstate a protectionist, nativist regime were hardly comforting, even though his focus on manufacturing was welcome. To the extent that President Trump is often seen as part of the backlash to globalization, this book could not be timelier, since the main narrative thread is about the globalization of U.S.-style capitalism.
Jennifer Delton The Industrialists: How the National Association of Manufacturers Shaped American Capitalism Princeton University Press358 pages, 6.3 x 9.5 inches ISBN 978 0691203324
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