An unprecedented and timely collection of Dr. King’s speeches on labor rights and economic justice Covering all the civil rights movement highlights--Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, and Memphis--award-winning historian Michael K. Honey introduces and traces Dr. King's dream of economic equality. Gathered in one volume for the first time, the majority of these speeches will be new to most readers. The collection begins with King's lectures to unions in the 1960s and includes his addresses made during his Poor People's Campaign, culminating with his momentous "Mountaintop" speech, delivered in support of striking black sanitation workers in Memphis. Unprecedented and timely, "All Labor Has Dignity" will more fully restore our understanding of King's lasting vision of economic justice, bringing his demand for equality right into the present.

“Timely and important . . . It should be our North Star for the recovery and beyond.” —Hillary Clinton “Sperling makes a forceful case that only by speaking to matters of the spirit can liberals root their belief in economic justice in people’s deepest aspirations—in their sense of purpose and self-worth.” —The New York Times When Gene Sperling was in charge of coordinating economic policy in the Obama White House, he found himself surprised when serious people in Washington told him that the Obama focus on health care was a distraction because it was “not focused on the economy.” How, he asked, was the fear felt by millions of Americans of being one serious illness away from financial ruin not considered an economic issue? Too often, Sperling found that we measured economic success by metrics like GDP instead of whether the economy was succeeding in lifting up the sense of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and security of people. In Economic Dignity, Sperling frames the way forward in a time of wrenching change and offers a vision of an economy whose guiding light is the promotion of dignity for all Americans.

This book examines the importance of work in human well-being, addressing several related philosophical questions about work and arguing on the whole that meaningful work is central in human flourishing. Work impacts flourishing not only in developing and exercising human capabilities but also in instilling and reflecting virtues such as honor, pride, dignity, self-discipline and self-respect. Work also attaches to a sense of purposefulness and personal identity, and meaningful work can promote both personal autonomy and a sense of personal satisfaction that issues from making oneself useful. Further still, work bears a formative influence on character and intelligence and provides a primary avenue for exercising complex skills and garnering esteem and recognition from others. The author defends a pluralistic account of meaningful work, arguing that work can be meaningful in virtue of developing capabilities, supporting virtues, providing a purpose, or integrating elements of a worker's life. In light of the impact of meaningful work on living well, the author argues that well-ordered societies provide opportunities for meaningful work, that individuals would be well advised to pursue these opportunities, and that the philosophical view of value pluralism, which casts work as having no special significance in an individual's life, is false. The book also addresses oppressive work that undermines human flourishing, examining potential solutions to mitigate the impact of bad work on those who perform it. Finally, a guiding argument of the book is that promoting meaningful work is a matter of ethics, more so than a matter of politics. Prioritizing people over profit, treating workers with respect, respecting the intelligence of working people, and creating opportunities for people to contribute developed skills are basic ethical principles for employing organizations and for communities at large.

“Fascinating and instructive...King’s philosophy, speaking to us through the written word, may turn out to constitute his most enduring legacy.” —Annette Gordon-Reed, New York Review of Books Martin Luther King, Jr., is one of America’s most revered figures, yet despite his mythic stature, the significance of his political thought remains underappreciated. In this indispensable reappraisal, leading scholars—including Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, and Danielle Allen—consider the substance of his lesser known writings on racism, economic inequality, virtue ethics, just-war theory, reparations, voting rights, civil disobedience, and social justice and find in them an array of compelling challenges to some of the most pressing political dilemmas of our time. “King was not simply a compelling speaker, but a deeply philosophical intellectual...We still have much to learn from him.” —Quartz “A compelling work of philosophy, all the more so because it treats King seriously without inoculating him from the kind of critique important to both his theory and practice.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

Catholic Social Teaching and Labour Law explores the contribution that religious ethics makes to debates on justice in working life. Many faiths include beliefs about the significance of work to human development and the need for work to be performed under conditions that uphold dignity, equality, and solidarity . This book considers how the substantive provisions of labour law reflect prior ethical choices about how workers should be treated, and how beliefs from Catholicism influence these. This book provides a thorough account of the principles found in Catholic Social Teaching (CST), and how these impact human work and labour rights . It tests the contemporary relevance of its principles by applying them to current debates, using EU labour law as a case study. Specifically, it examines CST on the right to a just wage, the right to rest, worker participation, and equality and discrimination. The book finds that CST offers fresh insights on long-standing injustices in the labour market, such as low wages or poor working conditions, and also sheds light on emerging challenges such as ensuring rest in an era of digital connectivity. The book recognizes that tensions arise in areas where the Church's beliefs diverge from those that prevail in a secular understanding of human rights. This is particularly evident in debates relating to equality. It concludes that faith-based perspectives should be included in pluralistic dialogue on the future of labour law.

On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by a religious fanatic. Held captive by him and his wife, Elizabeth suffered daily physical and emotional abuse. Rescued nine months later, she rejoined her family. Now for the first time, Smart tells the story of how she survived and endured, and found the strength to pick up the pieces of her life. (Bestseller)

In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor classified 12.2 million persons as officially unemployed. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. Almost 8 million folks were working part time involuntarily and another 6.8 million had simply stopped looking for work. Neither of these latter two groups--almost 27 million people--is included in the official count of the unemployed released on the first Friday of every month. Statistics like these almost make you want to throw your hands up and scream, "There's no way out!" But in A Way Out of No Way: The Economic Prerequisites of the Beloved Community, Michael Greene argues that's the last thing we ought to do. Rather than sink into a deep hole of hopelessness, the author contends that we should return to the economic thought of Martin Luther King Jr. and to the conception of full employment that constitutes the economic bedrock of his Beloved Community. Greene contends that the full employment/right-to-work agenda that King fought and died for is exactly what's needed to put an end to the twin problems of involuntary joblessness and poverty. What's more, and contrary to popular opinion, Greene argues that realizing King's full employment/right-to-work agenda is fiscally feasible and can even be done without appreciably adding to the nation's debt. More generally, the author contends that a King-like response to joblessness and poverty is a route that leads to "a way out of no way."