As World War II came to a close, economic recovery in France hinged on coal. With nearly 90 percent of French energy dependent on coal and imported coal unavailable, France, traditionally the world's largest importer, was forced to rely on its own troubled coal-mining industry.The Battle for Coal is the first full study to address the history and politics of coal production in post-World War II France. Holter examines the French coal-mining industry's role in postwar reconstruction and the state's intervention into the industry in an effort to promote economic expansion. He traces the complex "battle for coal" that took place as government officials, labor leaders, management personnel, and mine workers struggled to increase production while transforming a private industry into a state-owned one. After surveying French coal-mining to 1939, Holter analyzes the impact of nationalization on production, the effects of the cold war on coal politics, and the coal strikes that rocked France in 1947 and 1948.Holter locates French industrial policy in the context of nationalization, national and local politics, and more broadly the emerging cold-war economy of postwar Europe, showing how the "battle for coal" related to the movement toward European economic integration. He focuses primarily on the role of labor in the process of nationalization. His insights into labor relations and the successes and limitations of a union-led production campaign provide a new understanding of the paradoxical nature of state-owned industries.

The Battle for Coal: Miners and the Politics of Nationalization in France, 1940–1950

Business & Money

Holter, Darryl

Economics

Northern Illinois University Press

We know Woody Guthrie as the role model for Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, as the bard of Greenwich Village, and of course as the scribe of America’s other national anthem “This Land is Your Land.” As we learn in the pages of Woody Guthrie L.A.: 1937 to 1941, Woody Guthrie became the Woody we know when he made his way west from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. He met America’s people. He saw the land that was his land, your land, my land. His eyes opened, his message sharpened, and his words were already on their way to iconic. Twelve essays tell the story in Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941. Celebrated Guthrie experts cover Guthrie’s racial egalitarianism as he threw off the worst of his Oklahoma and Texas roots and pushed past a notorious lynching in which his father may have participated, his ability to mold evangelical perspectives into politically savvy folk songs, and the impact he still exerts in his songs about migrants and workers looking for the main chance in California. Woody Guthrie L.A.: 1937 to 1941, edited by historians Darryl Holter and William Deverell, is the product of many years’ research and close cooperation with members of Woody Guthrie’s family and estate. Lyrics Guthrie wrote about Los Angeles, many of which he never set to music, are published in this remarkable volume for the first time. The book also features more than a dozen of Guthrie’s brilliant cartoons―his quickly drawn satires on politics, the wealthy, and the future of Los Angeles. That he was prescient becomes clear. And his genius for communication, the essence of his place in the annals of American music history, is apparent on every page. Darryl Holter is the author of Workers and Unions in Wisconsin: A Labor History and The Battle for Coal: Miners and the Nationalization of Coal-Mining in France. He is a musician and singer-songwriter, a former labor leader, an urban developer, an adjunct professor of history at the University of Southern California, and a member of the Professional Musicians Union Local 47. William Deverell is professor of history and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West at the University of Southern California. He is the author of numerous studies of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century American West, including Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past.

Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 to 1941

Biographies & Memoirs

Deverell, William

Arts & Literature

Angel City Press

<div> The first book to tell the early history of cars in Los Angeles. Los Angeles's car culture has shaped the nation's preferences in transportation, architecture, leisure, and even dining. The story of the automobile and that of Los Angeles have been entwined for more than a century. Driving Force: How Los Angeles Put People in Cars and Cars on the Road explores how the explosive growth of Los Angeles's passion for automobiles was ignited by an unlikely, visionary mix of entrepreneurs and risk-takers. It owed its inception to the bicycle shop owners who began repairing and selling cars, carriage retailers, and automobile aficionados who ventured into unknown territory to sell a product regarded by nearly all banks and most businesses as a fad at best. These early adopters learned how to broaden the market for automobiles and convince the public that the car was no longer a luxury but a necessity. </div>

Driving Force: Automobiles and the New American City, 1900-1930

History

Gee, Stephen

Americas

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Books by Holter, Darryl