The Hammer is a telling, but hopeful reflection of the current labor movement in the United States. Nolan discusses where the labor movement is today compared to what it used to be, the effects of the pandemic on how people think about labor, and how unions could be doing a lot more to ensure that more working people have the ability to unionize successfully. A lot of the book focuses on Sarah Nelson, one of the most active union activists right now. Nolan also shares various stories across the U.S. including unions that already exist and the people who are working towards unionizing their workplaces.

I really enjoyed The Hammer. Not only is this book packed with so much important information about unions and unionization, but Nolan also adeptly critiques the current organized labor movement and explains how we could all be working towards creating democratic workplaces for all. I found this incredibly easy to read. Nolan’s writing is laidback, but well written. I laughed quite a few times.

This is a great book for people who want to start learning about unions and unionization. It is also great for people who are already knowledgeable about the subject as Nolan does take time to ask why unions are slowly disappearing and what it would take to rebuild the organized labor movement.

A useful survey of the labor movement's continued reality, a supplement to mostly historical reviews of American labor, handy to read alongside conversations about contemporary labor conditions, monopolization, etc.

This was an interesting book, but not what I expected. I thought it was going to focus more on the labor movement's history in general, but there was a lot more memoir interlaced than I thought there would be. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I thought I was going to be getting into.

Many thanks to Net Galley for the advance reading copy of this fantastic eBook.

I’d recommend this book to people interested in the modern American labor movement and how labor history reflects onto it. If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of the labor movement, this is not that, but in conjunction with different labor history texts, this does fill a necessary gap in the modern labor narrative. The strongest element here is the interviewees, who breathe life into the book the way they breathe life into the movement itself. The weakest is the very light but recurring presence of authorial opinions on unrelated topics, which I don’t personally mind, but think may be alienating to other readers. I wouldn’t be opposed to reading from this author again, but probably only on labor-related topics. That being said, I think some more rounds of technical editing, particularly around grammar and spelling, would make the book that much stronger.

The text is structured very clearly, with every chapter focusing on a different state and the according union efforts (as well as background) there. Each chapter feels significant and necessary to sketching out a broader picture of the modern-day labor movement. Spelling is for the most part competent, but the repeated misspelling of bandana as “bandanna” drove me up the wall. Word choice is relatively straightforward and clear, sometimes lucid, while punctuation and syntax, for the most part, are adequate and coherent. The writing style is succinct and consistent, making it an easily accessible read for people interested in the topic compared to other denser books on the labor movement.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I enjoyed this read and found it very informative. I am currently unionizing at my job and am therefore keyed in to the current moment in labor organizing. It is helpful to read other stories and get to know how this system really works (or doesn’t) as I move forward on my own journey. I
Also appreciated reading about real people and experiences and not just the surface or organization level of things

A wonderful book on the state of the American labor movement; I appreciate how it highlighted the everyday stories.

This book is basically a state of the union on unions. Discussing the major happenings in the organized labor movement all over the country from West Virginia to Miami, California to South Carolina. I found the base story interesting but not engaging. Reflective of the labor movement itself, I was intrigued by the sentiments but not necessarily moved by them. At times the writing felt disjointed and the stories didn't seem very connected. The stories also felt thematically very repetitive. A union is either badly curtailed by the company they work for or they have power but its overarching impact is limited. I understand that that is that state of affairs but I think perhaps the writing style could have been a bit more inventive or creative so as not to seem like the same five sentiments were repeated just with different characters in a new setting. I was slightly disappointed because I had high hopes but essentially it is a rather fine book.