Workers who loaded and unloaded ships have formed a distinctive occupational group over the past two centuries. As trade expanded so the numbers of dock labourers increased and became concentrated in the major ports of the world. This ambitious two-volume project goes beyond existing individual studies of dock workers to develop a genuinely comparative international perspective over a long historical period. Volume 1 contains studies of 22 major ports worldwide. Built around an agreed framework of issues, these 'port studies' examine the type of workers who dominated dock labour, their race, class and ethnicity, the working conditions of dockers and the role of government as employer, arbitrator and supporter. The studies also detail how dockers organized their labour, patterns of strike action and involvement in political organizations. The structure of the port city is also outlined and descriptions given of the waterside environment. These areas of investigation form the basis for a series of 11 thematic studies which comprise Volume 2. Drawing on the information provided in the port studies, these essays identify important aspects and recurring themes, and explain how and why particular cases diverge from the rest. The final chapter of the book synthesizes the various approaches taken to offer a model which suggests several configurations of dock labour and presents suggestions for future research. This major scholarly achievement represents the most sustained attempt to date to provide a comparative international history of dock labour. An annotated bibliography completes this essential reference work.

During the decade that followed the end of World War II, American and English dockworkers undertook a series of militant revolts against their employers, their governments, and even their union leaderships. In this in-depth comparative study. Colin J. Davis draws on a wide range of sources to explore the upheavals on both sides of the Atlantic. Davis examines the dynamics of work and work stoppage along the two pivotal waterfronts, showing how issues of race, organized crime, union affiliation, working conditions, and cold war politics shaped waterfront uprisings and the state's response to them. He explores other key differences between American and British labor, such as the cultural forces that led to the emergence of rank-and-file dockworkers' movements, degree of governmental oversight, methods of obtaining work, and specifics of ethnic and racial identification. Addressing questions of why dockworkers were such influential forces in the postwar industrial arena, Waterfront Revolts reveals how workers and trade unions directly influenced cold war politics, the economy, and culture--even across national borders.