Pre-order my book, 'FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor'

FIGHT LIKE HELL is out 4/26/22 via One Signal Publishers,

Hey friends,

I am so, so SO excited to share the cover of my book, FIGHT LIKE HELL, with you all, and let y'all know that pre-orders are now available!

FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor is out 4/26/22 via One Signal Publishers, a Simon & Schuster imprint, just in time for May Day. I've been working on it for the past year, and still have a little ways to go, so it's incredibly exciting to see this out in the world. I kind of still can't believe that I get to write a book, let alone one that means so much to me. If you've enjoyed basically anything I've written in the past few years on labor and working class life in America, I am absolutely certain that you will enjoy this book.

Pre-orders are super important, especially for first-time authors like me, so while it feels pretty weird to ask people to buy something I'm still working on, it would mean the world if you would consider doing so (or sharing with some friends who you think might dig it!).

Here's that pre-order link: bit.ly/fightlikehellbook

Here's the promo text (they made me sound real fancy):

A revelatory and inclusive history of the American labor movement, from journalist Kim Kelly. The history of organized labor in America all too often conjures a bygone era and generic images of slick-haired strongmen and hard-hatted construction workers. But in fact, one of America’s first unions was founded by Black Mississippi freedwomen in the 1860s. Jewish immigrant garment workers were instrumental in getting worker protections incorporated into FDR’s New Deal. Latino- and Asian-American farmworkers in California were 1970s pioneers in the fight for racial inclusion and a fair wage. And today, the Amazon warehouse employees fighting to unionize in Bessemer, Alabama are 85% Black. In Fight Like Hell, Teen Vogue labor columnist and independent journalist Kim Kelly tells a definitive history of the labor movement and the people—workers, organizers, and their allies—who risked everything to win fair wages, better working conditions, disability protections, and an eight-hour workday. That history is a 1972 clothing company strike that saw 4,000 Chicana laborers start a boycott that swept the nation. It is Ida Mae Stull’s 1934 demand for the right to work in an Ohio coal mine alongside the men, and the enslaved Black women before her who weren’t given a choice. It’s Dorothy Lee Bolden’s 1960s rise from domestic workers’ union founder to White House anti-segregationist. It’s Mother Jones on the picket lines, and Lucy Parsons, Marie Equi, Ben Fletcher, and Frank Little’s militant battles against the ravages of capitalism. It’s the flight attendants union that pushed to root out sexual assault in the skies and ended a 2019 federal government shutdown. It’s the incarcerated workers organizing prison strikes for basic rights, and the sex workers building collective power outside the law. And it is Bayard Rustin, a queer civil rights pioneer who helped organize Dr. King’s March on Washington and promoted the alignment between movements for labor and civil rights. As America grapples with the unfinished business of emancipation, the New Deal, and Johnson’s Great Society, Fight Like Hell offers a transportive look at the forgotten heroes who’ve sacrificed to make good on the nation’s promises. Kim Kelly’s publishing debut is both an inspiring read and a vital contribution to American history.

*Also, a note to Substack pals here - I have fully moved over to Patreon, so for additional updates and general nonsense, please consider joining me over there! I will probably send out occasional book announcements on here, but that’s really where the action is: https://www.patreon.com/kimkelly