"Rudi Batzell's brilliant contribution to labor history uses four great American and British industrial cities as the focus of an innovative rethinking of crucial questions about the relationship between race and class. Superbly researched, lucidly written, and analytically incisive, the book situates the histories of  working class formation in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Liverpool and Sheffield in their wider regional and global contexts. Batzell not only provides a superb portrait of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century industrial world, but also gives new intellectual life to old debates and provides profound insights into our present social and political crisis."

Jonathan Hyslop, Colgate University

"An insightful and cogently argued study that employs a finely grained comparative history of union building and the construction of racial boundaries in four British and American cities to address one of the central issues in historical and social science research: the relationship between class, race, and capitalism. This is a book that will have a very significant impact across several fields and disciplines."

David T. Brundage, UC Santa Cruz