Underground Woman Pb (Labor And Social Change)

Author - Marian Swerdlow ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Temple University Press was reviewed on 24-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Underground Woman Pb (Labor And Social Change) by Temple University Press. If you really want to understand the working conditions of those who recently struck, shutting down NYC for days, this is your book. The subway subculture is mostly invisible to the riders and this is the only book I know of that reveals it. My only objection is to some repetitiveness and disorganization, plus it would have explained a lot to have known that the authors father had worked on trains and died in an accident.¤

2) Paperback Book Underground Woman Pb (Labor And Social Change) by Temple University Press. As one of Marian Swerdlow´s seniors in the NYCTA, I don´t think any of us thought we were the subjects of a sociologist´s eye while we were working with her. It turns out we were, and Underground Woman is the result.

Swerdlow´s book brings back many memories of my former railroad and the people in it. Many of her anecdotes ring true - at times I was laughing out loud - although I was never aware of the depth of the hostility she apparently held towards senior people, motormen, and myself in particular until I read this book. (I am the "Mary Hansen" character in her book, and I find it interesting that Swerdlow chooses to perpetuate in the outside press outright untruths about myself, my career, and my activities in the Transport Workers Union.) None of us who came before her and worked to change conditions in the subway, unless they joined the New Directions movement, apparently did anything worth respecting in her view.

Many of the folk tales and outlines of the life, times, and culture of the NYC subway system are vividly captured in Underground Woman. It´s a pity that because of her single-minded focus on union affairs, how they should be conducted, and how New Directions can save subway workers from themselves, that she missed so much more of what goes on outside of "official" union and management channels. The condescending attitude of many New Directions activists, especially towards those who support neither the status quo in TWU nor New Directions, turns many people off who would otherwise support them.

I give Swerdlow credit for having the sense to leave the job when she realized that working in the railroad industry was simply not the place for her. Her book is very good in capturing the rhythm and flow of life in Rapid Transit Transportation, but derails itself by portraying any non-supporters of New Directions in a clearly negative light.¤

3) Paperback Book Underground Woman Pb (Labor And Social Change) by Temple University Press. Take a wild ride through the New York City subway system with author Marian Swerdlow, one of the first women subway conductors. In the days when subway cars were canvas for graffiti murals and there were no toilets for women employees, Swerdlow trained in Manhattan´s underworld of tunnels and learned how to cope with the accompanying dangers and frustrations. Her fascinating insider´s account from four years on the job is laden with anecdotes that range from the funny to the painful to the absurd. From her fellow employees, she got grief and harassment, but also camaraderie and love-and a distinct subway lingo that permeates her prose. At all hours of the day and night, New Yorkers in their glorious diversity rode her subway cars. Some spat on her and assaulted her; others were supportive and cheered her on.A white woman in a mostly minority male workplace, Swerdlow helped edit a rank-and-file newsletter, "Hell on Wheels," and tried to organize for better working conditions, confronting the Kafkaesque Transit Authority bureaucracy and complacent union leadership.This book is full of the experiences that give New York City its edge-the rush hour, crime, medical emergencies, fires in subway cars, floods in subway tunnels, and confrontation of ethnic groups. The conductor is the person who hears what New Yorkers have to say about the quality of life in the Big Apple. And Swerdlow is a narrator with attitude, who has her own words for the subway system of today, including the new standards of politeness that riders are supposed to observe. It includes a glossary of over 140 subway terms. Author note: Marian Swerdlow teaches high school social studies in New York City. After working as a subway conductor, she taught sociology at the State University College at Buffalo. Swerdlow was born and grew up in the Bronx.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 21-Nov-2008, 15663961079781566396103, 071-2X1-8

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