BOOK REVIEW: Integrating Industry: Past, Present, and Future

by William Musham


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Abstract

The article focuses on the book, "Blacks in the Industrial World," by Theodore V. Purcell and Gerald F. Cavanagh. The book is a thoughtful and provocative study of the position of the black worker in an industrial civilization. Although it is directed primarily toward the business manager, it should be of fundamental interest to all who are concerned with the integration of the black in the U.S. society. The authors spent three and one-half years of intensive study on this problem, focusing their attention on the employment practices of one segment of the U.S. business, which is the electrical industry. It is clear, as the authors point out, that integration of blacks into a fairly rapidly growing industry is easier than achieving similar results in an industry where employment is static, as, for example, the steel industry. Nevertheless, the employment percentage of blacks at all levels, even in the electrical manufacturing industry, only increased from 3.3 percent in 1960 to 7.3 percent in 1969, far short of the 10 percent suggested by the authors.

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