Call Me Mike: A Political Biography of Michael V. DiSalle by Richard G. Zimmerman (review)

BOOK REVIEWS creati o n. Meyer clearly describes the impact of globalizatic , n on the tire and rubber industry. On the positive side,the influence of foreign companies such as Micheliti accelerated the introduction of radial tires to American autoniobiles, making the traditional biasply tires and the factories producing them obsolete . So far we have solne creative destruction. But glc,balization has also brought about a surrender to foreign capital and companies,especially Japanese Bridgest(, ne) and French (Michelin) of all but two of the American companies which introduced and led the rubber tire industry for so long. The result has been that American labor no longer negotiates with American industry for Aincrican jobs and American prosperity. American tire and rubber plants nc, w operate mostly as pawns on a chessboard where fc, reign managers, shareholders, and governments contr(, 1 the major nioves. This brings us to the deep question lurking in Meyer's narrative: If unions exist fc, r the democratization ot American prc, sperity, can unions or the American companies whc, se proctucts the>, 1»liake, sulvive continued globilizatic, n as presently exercised? Or will globalization democratize deprivation and explc , itation?" The evidence Meyer adduces is suggestive and trc, ubling, but not conclusive, and this comment is no criticism. The book is not without its flaws. Surprisingly, there is no discussion whatevei of the importance and longrange influence of the Taft-Hartley Act in blocking and undermining ot union advancement. Also, there is almost no discussion of the highly disruptive influence of the Vietnam War on U.S. industry in general and labormanagement relations in particular. Finally, the author has little to say about the noncreative destruction wrought in the 1970s by inflatioiiaveragitig over seven per cent l) er year fc, r the decadethat created have, c in U.S. industry, and gave foreign enterprise a huge competitive advantage in inany areas. Meyer's account would have been better contextualized with explicit consideration of these factors. All in all, however,this is a readable, sometimes deeply moving account of the histc,ry of the URW. It will be difficult to solpass . James R. Anderson Michigan State University Richard G. Zimmerman. Call Me Mike:A Political Biography of Michael V. DiSalle. Kent: Kent State Universitv Press, 2003. 322 pp. 32.() 0. ISBN: 0873387554 ( cloth),« his brisk bi() graphyofOhio's sixtieth governor, by a veteran chronicler of the Statehouse and U.S. Capitc,1, helps explain the adage that Ohio's voters elect Deinocrats as adds to governor to do those things GOP governors fail to dothen ,after one term,irately retire said Democrats. DiSalle, son of Italian immigrants, only the second Catholic to hc,Id " supreme executive power iii Ohio, was governor from 1959 to 1963. He moved into the Governor's Mansion after a long apprenticeship in Toledo municipal pc, litics and a brief, thankless, but madethe best of it career as a federal price regulator for President Truman during the Korean War. DiSalle's parents haled from the They emigrated midItaly province of Abruzzi. separately to New York,and after marrying,they moved to Toledo. The DiSalles' exertion and thrift, Latinate echoes of Horatio Alger, meant son Michael obtained legal training at Georgetown University iii an era when eveii oldstock Americans seldom attained such schooling. In Washington, OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 102 TIME 14 sf f f Michael DiSalle met his future wife, Myrtle England , a fellow Catholic, whose roots were in Lotiisiana . By the time DiSalle's governorship ended in 1963, the marriage, Zimmerman records, had deteriorated into a kind of cold war. Michael and Myrtle DiSalle permanently separated soon after, seemingly not because of specific conductDiSalle 's zesty womanizing surfaced only after the separation but because Mrs. DiSalle may have tired of the role of political spouse. After midDepression service in the Ohio House of Representatives,Michael DiSalle landed a Toledo City Council berth and eventually a mostly ceremonial role as mayor. ( Toledo had a city manager.) Zimmerman argues the mayoralty pushed DiSalle into the spotlight. But even before that DiSalle had come to the public's attention when as a city councilman in 1945 he organized a LaborMan agement Citizens Committee that aimed to lessen...