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The Persistence of Republicanism: Class War Talk, American Style

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rondinonet1{at}southernct.edu.

	Abstract

The authors argue that there have been moments in American history when a class analysis entered into popular discourse. What has been "exceptional" about American history is the manner in which that class analysis emerged. When Americans speak the language of "class" and "class warfare," it is often clothed in the rhetoric of labor republicanism. That is, rather than offering a systemic analysis of capitalist processes, American labor republicanism offers a class analysis that sets a small set of bad acting "elites" and their dependents against the mass of American workers. The authors trace this discourse from Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 description of "economic royalists" to Lou Dobbs’s nativist attack on "corporate elites" and undocumented workers. As the United States enters a new period of "class awareness" and economic crisis, this republicanism returns to haunt public discourse.

First published on May 18, 2009
Labor Studies Journal 2009, doi:10.1177/0160449X09335474


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