Working for Wages: On the Road in the Fifties (review)

Peter Browning's personal memoir of working as a vehicle transporter from Detroit to Los Angeles from the late 1940s to the late 1950s is a great read! Part bildungsroman, showing us how a young man made his way in an uncaring world, and part group adventure story, with sociological, cultural and labor observations woven into the tale, this book opens a window on an American landscape and society that has long since passed into history. We see and feel the hardships and the rewards of over the road travel before the construction of the interstate highway system; we see towns and cities along the way before they became engulfed by the automobile-dependent urban sprawl of today.

There is no pretense here that all of America is encompassed by this perspective. We find ourselves in a world of itinerant, mostly down at their heels, white males and observe their lives of hard and often dangerous work, heavy drinking, gambling, sexual escapades, and other adventures. Browning focuses closely on the personal misfortunes and social attitudes that these men were immersed in—racism, sexism, alcoholism, alienation, and class grievances. It makes for a harsh, warts-and-all picture, but remarkably the book manages to keep many of the characters who drift through its pages in a sympathetic light. It accomplishes this fine balancing act by also showing us not only the hardships and oppressive lives that these men endured, but also how they sometimes persevered and fought back.

From Browning's detailed presentation of characters and dialogue from half a century ago, one might question his apparently highly accurate memory. Did he keep notes or a journal at the time, or is this work, like others recently published, partly fictionalized? Either way, the book makes a valuable contribution, but inquiring readers will be naturally curious about the author's sources and methodology. A word or two on this subject in the brief introduction might have sufficed.

Organized labor makes an unflattering appearance in the form of Jimmy Hoffa Sr.'s Teamster home local in Detroit, Local 299. Browning and his fellow drivers work for a non-union, low wage small employer who retains his non-union status in part through a corrupt relationship with the Local. The author and some of the drivers try to assert their rights in relation to both the union and the employer, casting a revealing if narrowly focused light on mid-twentieth century labor relations, and leading to a somewhat surprising and abrupt ending to the story.

This work can fit well as a source into history, sociology or other classes dealing with post World War II American life and labor. Labor educators can draw on it to portray working class conditions, as well as social attitudes and consciousness, labor relations and corruption, and the continuity of class struggle.