Today, surveillance and regulation of employees at all levels (except the highest) of the American workplace are pervasive. Digital information systems have become important tools of managerial control, along with the principles of human relations and corporate culture, and employment-based welfare capitalism. The constraints built into these systems through what some call ""business process reengineering"" are a continuation of scientific management principles developed during the late 19th century. This book provides fresh insight into various practices of managerial control from the 1880s to the present and their effects on work organization and quality, and worker skill requirements. The author highlights current developments, accounting for enhanced automation, offshoring and related changes in the production and distribution of goods and services.

According to public opinion data over the past decade, most Americans hold center-left attitudes regarding key economic and social policy issues. Recent polls even show significant support of socialism among American adults, especially self-identified Democrats and the millennial generation. At the same time, the focus of the mass media has been on a widespread right-wing populism, while movements on the left seem to lack political clout. In order to better understand this dichotomy, this book explores relations between organized labor and left-wing parties and movements in America at crucial junctures from the 1870s to the present. Providing fresh insight into current political developments, it highlights emerging alternatives and major challenges facing labor and the left today.

With the current state of foreign affairs, the terms ""Americanism"" and ""Americanization"" sometimes take on an unexpected - and an unflattering - connotation. Americanism essentially involves local settings outside the United States that are in some way related or attributed to American influence. While the validity of this influence may be under scrutiny, it requires a detailed historical - and sometimes cultural - analysis to understand all the dynamics and implications of Americanization. A variety of factors contributes to this influence, including the preoccupation and reception of the relevant culture itself. For instance, many European countries have at times demonstrated a preoccupation with all things American - a preoccupation which was not necessarily swayed by any action of America itself. The overall actualization of Americanization, however, encompasses a number of societal dimensions. Focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this volume presents an in-depth critical analysis of the Americanization process. Beginning with a survey of early European preoccupations with all things American, the book goes on to discuss European concerns regarding American influence after World War II. The work then looks at Americanism and its influence within the United States itself, especially regarding developments during the New Deal and beyond. The primary goal of the analysis is the construction of an interpretative framework, allowing for a more balanced approach to the study of Americanism abroad. Written from a critical, social-emancipatory perspective, the author's approach blends economic, military, social, political and psychological dimensions as well as an examination of the ways in which these disciplines interact. Finally, Americanism is examined as part of a U.S.-style corporate globalization.