From Publishers Weekly
Culled from an April 2004 conference on Wal-Mart at the University of California, Santa Barbara, these essays can be redundant, but they offer stimulating perspectives on the world's largest corporation. The rise of Wal-Mart, declares editor Lichtenstein (Walter Reuther), has been abetted by a "southernized, deunionized, post–New Deal America," a business culture in which labor costs can be squeezed, even as a company promotes loyalty via "faux classlessness." Several chapters place these phenomena in context: describing how Wal-Mart represents both an extension of and a quantum leap from previous retail giants and how it places unprecedented price pressure on its suppliers. Wal-Mart saves consumers money, the contributors argue, but only by externalizing many social and economic costs, including benefits for its workers. One provocative chapter, based on anonymous worker sources, describes a workplace atmosphere of relentless stress and understaffing. Some interesting tidbits: Wal-Mart hit a wall trying to expand in Mexico and never gained traction in Germany, in both cases because of the countries' different socioeconomic structures. A final chapter, by a union organizer, proposes a "Wal-Mart Workers Association" for this infamously antiunion company. The association would gain 13,000 members if only 1% of the Wal-Mart workforce joined. (Jan.)
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*Starred Review* In April 2004, Lichtenstein, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, did something unusual: he invited his academic colleagues to attend a seminar on the largest corporation in America--Wal-Mart. These resulting 12 essays are the culmination of that meeting. The largest employer outside the U.S. government is examined here for the first time by a consortium of scholars rather than through the lens of the typical Wall Street business press. Bethany E. Moreton explores the origins of the company in tiny Bentonville, Arkansas, and describes the behemoth of mass merchandising as a paradox of small-town values and huge corporate efficiency. Edna Bonacich and Khaleelah Hardie investigate Wal-Mart's effect on the logistics of ports and containerized shipping and critique the company for lowering labor standards, driving mom-and-pop retailers out of business, and dictating costs and packaging standards to its suppliers. Brad Seligman looks at the continuing class-action suit that alleges a culture of discrimination against women. With numerous charts and graphs that keep the data flowing, this assemblage thoroughly dissects the Wal-Mart global high-tech phenomenon through overarching historical, cultural, and economic perspectives. Lichtenstein and friends do an incredible job of balancing the wonders and horrors of the force that is Wal-Mart. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Like archaeologists who pick over artifacts to understand an ancient society, the scholars here [are] examining Wal-Mart for insights into the very nature of American capitalist culture.
About the Author
Nelson Lichtenstein is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Walter Reuther, Labor's War at Home, and State of the Union.
