Rebel Imaginaries

“A beautifully written and generative book, Rebel Imaginaries provides a new model for doing labor history by embracing the intersectional qualities of working-class life and refusing to relegate economics, social movement mobilization, expressive culture, and electoral politics to hermetically sealed autonomous realms. This landmark work in ethnic studies is certain to exert powerful influence and impact in the years to come.” - George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place

“Provocatively arguing that the post-1935 years of the New Deal's reforms in some ways undermined the promise of the social movements that made it possible, Elizabeth E. Sine makes an exciting contribution from which scholars in American studies, ethnic studies, and US history will learn a great deal. Compact and engaging, Rebel Imaginaries will also be of interest to lay readers, organizers, and those in social movements, for whom it holds lessons.” - David R. Roediger, author of Class, Race, and Marxism

“Sine’s contributions here are numerous and substantial.... It is fitting that a book so invested in recovering historical possibilities should prove so likely to clear new routes for scholars of labour and culture in the twentieth-century US.” - Owen Walsh, Journal of American Studies

"... The topics covered are well researched, often exploring little-examined aspects of both regional and national history. Worth reading not only for California history but also for a broader perspective on the Depression years. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." - C. K. Piehl, Choice

"Sine's creative use of historical events and movements of 1930s California results in a book worthy of deep reflection. . . . This book should be read by those interested in labor and social history, American studies and ethnic studies, and US history more broadly." - Peter Cole, International Journal of Social History

"Rebel Imaginaries is a must-read for scholars of California and the West and should be considered even more broadly by anyone seeking to unearth the narratives of laboring classes." - Brian Kovalesky, Western Historical Quarterly

"A startling original history that captures the grassroots energy, organizing, and resistance during this crisis of capitalism in which lines of race, class, and belonging were redrawn. The book deserves a wide readership among undergraduate and graduate students." - David M. Struthers, Labor

"Rebel Imaginaries is an ambitious effort in both its geographic and conceptual breadth. . . . As a growing number of geographers are turning to studies of far-right politics in the contemporary moment, a project such as Sine’s focused on the right-wing imaginaries of Californians could be immensely instructive." - Alexander Tarr, Antipode