Out Of The Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa And The Remaking Of

In Out of the Jungle, historian Thaddeus Russell gives us a detailed, crisply written, and fascinating account of Jimmy Hoffa’s life and times, much of it previously untold. Russell argues that Hoffa was compelled by a variety of social forces to place the economic interests of his union members over broad ideological concerns. The most important of those forces was the demonstrated desire of ordinary Teamsters to improve their material lives. \u0022What do you hire us for,\u0022 he famously asked a meeting of truck drivers, \u0022if not to sell your labor at the highest buck we can get?\u0022 He responded to the rank-and-file members’ demands as did none of his contemporaries in the labor movement, seeking financial gain with the mercilessness that made him renowned and feared. This new paperback edition will be most cherished by students of labor history and American studies.