Books published by Hard Ball Press

The moon lit the riverbank as George and Dorothy each made their way to the teen dance hall. It''s 1935, and sons and daughters of black and white workers in Pittsburg look forward having some fun dancing the LIndy Hop, until the police come in and break up the dance...with their bully clubs.The teens all scatter, but Dorothy has a plan to save the dance. Is George ready to join the fight? Or will he play it safe and just go home to his family?Down on James Street is based on a real historical incident in 1930''s Pittsburgh. Today, young and old an take inspiration from this wonderful story of courage and solidarity, with gorgeous illustrations by Byron Gramby that summon up the style and the cool of that long-gone era.

Updated in 2020, this plain-spoken guide will help leaders evaluate and revitalize their unions. For officers who are committed to doing thing differently, Just Elected walks the reader through steps that will mobilize members and breathe fresh vitality into the union. The labor movement isn't about servicing workers, it's about building a sustainable workers' organization - and this handbook shows you how to do it.Learn about:>the organizing model (vs. the sevicing model) of unionism;>the strategic planning needed to build your union;>the various functions of the union and its finances;>building a communicaitons network that involves and rallies the members;>the laws you have to look out for, how to deal with other officers and union staff, and how to organize yourself to do what needs to be done to pull it together and make it all work;"available from Hard Ball Press and booksellers everywhere.

An easy-to-read, comprehensive guide to how you can get the most out of your job in a unionized workplace, from understanding what a union is and how it operates to what you can do to make your union more successful.This is a book for workers in a unionized workplace who want to know what protections and benefits their union gives them, and for workers in a shop that’s just been unionized who want to know how their work life will change. It has a strong message for workers in a non-union shop who want to know about the benefits of working in a union shop. And it’s an in-depth resource for students in labor education and labor-management programs as well.Topics include: Understanding how unions operate, getting your say in contract demands, the full story on union dues, a union's responsibility to its members, getting help with workplace problems, a member's rights and responsibilities, labor laws that affect you, how to file a grievance, and social media for union. 

Pregnant nurses at James Madison Hospital beg to be relieved from caring for patients with the Zika virus that is raging through a hot Philadelphia summer. But Mother Burgess, the Director of Nursing refuses. So the nurses turn to Lenny Moss for help joining his service workers union. But Lenny has his hands full investigating repeated attempts to murder Rachel Austin, a popular doctor. As the epidemic overloads the hospital with cases, and the administration retaliates against the nurses who are leading the union campaign, a killer roams the facility with murder in his heart.

A galloping horse interrupts a sleepy afternoon as Thaddeus rides into the life of young Harriet. The Fugitive Slave Act is about to send a river of freedom-seeking men, women and children to the historic Elgin Settlement in Canada, where the Underground Railroad has carried Harriet and hundreds more. She is determined to become a courier like Thaddeus for the secret black anti-slavery Order. As she welcomes newcomers to the Settlement, Harriet struggles with her feelings for Thaddeus while fighting for an equal place in the Order, and Thaddeus agonizes over the family he left behind in the North Carolina Great Dismal Swamp community.Freedom Soldiers brings alive the turbulent and prophetic experiences of two young people freed from slavery who vow to destroy the hated system. Their story reveals the leadership and courage of self-liberated and enslaved black men and women who secretly worked to bring enslaved people to freedom and abolish slavery forever.

A New Book That Demonstrates How Ordinary American Communities Challenge the “One Percent” and WinGood Trouble: A Shoeleather History of Nonviolent Direct Action is a riveting chronicle of stories that prove time and again the actions of thoughtful, committed people can change their country and the world. It is a brisk, inspiring primer for veteran activists and newcomers alike.Civil Rights struggles. “Fight for $15” strikes. Tenant occupations. LGBT campaigns. Each of the 40-plus examples in Good Trouble focuses on the power of organizing and mobilizing, relevant in any context, and serves as an “emergency tool kit” for nonviolent direct action.  “Good Trouble comes to us at a time when faith in our democracy is fading,” writes Rev. Damaris Whittaker, senior minister of Fort Washington Collegiate Church, New York. “Change is the result of action, but those without hope do not act. Good Trouble is a tale of overcoming despair to beat the system,” says Jackie Allen-Doucot, lifelong member of the Catholic Worker Movement.The book takes its title from a quote by John Lewis, member of congress and legendary civil rights hero, who led a 2016 sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House Of Representatives: “Dr. King and Rosa Parks inspired me to get into trouble. Good Trouble.”Good Trouble author Steve Thornton is a retired union organizer who has spent forty-five years on the front lines of student, labor, community, environmental, and anti-racist struggles. This is his third book, the first with Hard Ball Press, publisher of a wide range of working class writings.

In 1970, a sniper's bullet shocks the sleepy Cape Cod village of Osterville. David Gomes, a young reporter for the Cape & Islands Gazette covers the story, thinking his reporting might lead to a job with a major metropolitan newspaper. With protests against the Viet Nam war and the rise of the Black Panthers roiling the county, the murder investigation becomes deeply personal when Gomes, a Cape Verdean American, encounters the legacy of the often overlooked history of a non-enslaved African people in the USA, as well as the deep-seated hatred toward all people of African descent among members of the white community.Gomes soon learns that investigating a murder can put him in the cross-hairs of a cold-blooded killer. It's a dangerous place for the young reporter as he peels away layers of family history in his quest to discover the motive behind a savage act of murder, and comes to understand a complicated, contradictory history of his own people.

In 1970, a sniper’s bullet shocks the sleepy Cape Cod village of Osterville. David Gomes, a young reporter for the Cape & Islands Gazette covers the story, thinking his reporting might lead to a job with a major metropolitan newspaper. With protests against the Viet Nam war and the rise of the Black Panthers roiling the county, the murder investigation becomes deeply personal when Gomes, a Cape Verdean American, encounters the legacy of the often overlooked history of a non-enslaved African people in the USA, as well as the deep-seated hatred toward all people of African descent among members of the white community.Gomes soon learns that investigating a murder can put him in the cross-hairs of a cold-blooded killer. It’s a dangerous place for the young reporter as he peels away layers of family history in his quest to discover the motive behind a savage act of murder, and comes to understand a complicated, contradictory history of his own people.

WINNING RICHMOND - HOW A PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE WON CITY HALLGayle McLaughlin"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." - Native American proverbA group of political activists, environmentalists, and social justice advocates formed a Progressive Alliance that took their city back from the Chevron Oil Company. They transformed Richmond, long polluted and poisoned, into a national leader in sustainability, equity and grassroots democracy, giving hope to the San Francisco Bay Area, the state of California, and the world.Gayle McLaughlin was at the center of that long-term struggle, organizing with co-activists, going door-to-door campaigning and serving as the two-term Mayor of Richmond, California. This is her story. This is Richmond's story.¿"…the eyes of the country are on you. And if Chevron can roll over you, they and their buddies will roll over every community in America. If you can stand up and beat them with all of their money, you're going to give hope to people all over America that we can control our destinies." - Bernie Sanders at Richmond Town Hall for the Richmond Progressive Alliance¿

Young Robert finds himself without a friend when his dad moves their family from their big suburban home to a trailer park. At first Robert looks down on the multi-racial blue collar children in the park. But after Jessie extends her hand in friendship over and over, the boy learns he has moved into the most generous and loving people in the world.

When his family moved to the trailer park, Robert hated the park, and he didn't trust the new neighbors. He missed his big house, the big yard and his old friends.Here's our new neighborhood," said Robert's dad."This isn't a real neighborhood," said Robert."This is a trailer park."But a young girl named Jessie slowly and patiently reached out her hand in friendship, until Robert learned his new neighbors in the park were the best people in the world.For every child who felt alone and without a friend, this book is for you.

or years sanitation worker Jake repaired broken toys he pulled from the trash and gave them to the children in the local shelter at Christmas. Jake is fired for breaking city regulations when an angry motorist reports Jake, His union takes the case to arbitration. Will Jake win his job back?

Fearless steelworker Ginny Johnson was fighting to stop the steel mill from closing when she disappeared. She’d accused the local union leadership of selling out the rank and file, making the local union president her enemy, while threatening to disrupt the steel company’s plans to shut down more mills across the country.No one investigated Ginny’s disappearance.Twenty years later, Ginny’s daughter Cory returns to her mill town home hoping to discover why her mother vanished. Cory finds old friends of her mother who want to help her, and old enemies who want to keep the past dead and buried.  Her quest puts Cory in the same danger her mother faced. Will she, too, end up one of the missing?Find out in the stunning debut novel from former steelworker Linda Nordquist.

Coal mine wars. That's what they called the long, bloody conflict between rival unions that tore apart families and communities throughout Illinois during the 1930s. Hot-headed Vinnie Vacca sides with the newly-formed Progressive Miners of America. His stubborn brother Bullo fights for the established United Mine Workers while the coal mine bosses hire Chicago gun thugs from the Capone mob to spread death and fear across the landscape. Vinnie and Bullo's father Antonio struggles to make peace within the family-and the community-as the unending bombings and gunfights kill too many too young. This bloody story is based on actual events that occurred throughout Illinois from 1933 to 1937. A stunning sequel to Corley's acclaimed debut novel Sixteen Tons.

A nurse accused of the wrongful death of her patient swears she is innocent, but the only one who believes her is a co-worker, who enlists the help of James Madision's fearless union steward and amateur detective, Lenny Moss.But Lenny has his hands full — The Croesus Medical Group, the new hospital owner, is threatening to withdraw contributions to the union's health and pension benefit fund. If they stop making payments, the fund will become insolvent and all the workers, active and retired, will lose their benefits. For many of them, it would be a death sentence.Fighting the new administration, Lenny barely has time to investigate the mysterious death — until he finds himself with more time on his hands that he ever expected to have in the 7th exciting Lenny Moss mystery.This Won’t Hurt A Bit "Since there’s no merit to the case against the laundry worker to begin with, Lenny is just wasting his time. But Sheard, a veteran nurse, makes sure that readers do not waste theirs. His intimate view of Lenny’s world is a gentle eye-opener into the way a large institution looks from a workingman’s perspective." New York Times Some Cuts Never Heal "This well-plotted page-turner is guaranteed to scare the bejesus out out of anyone anticipating a hospital stay anytime in the near future." Publishers Weekly 

In a polarized post-9/11 America, Cyrus Duffleman, adjunct anti-hero of the 21st century, bobs and weaves through five jobs at four universities in one day. Comedy and tragedy interweave as Duffleman braces for the challenges more and more American workers face in the new "gig" economy. If you care about the future of higher education, our students and teachers, this is the novel you need to read now.This classroom edition includes bonus essays, interviews and graphics about adjunct survival and the state of so-called "higher" education. Alex Kudera's award-winning Fight for Your Long Day puts college realities on the map."It took nearly 40 years before anyone wrote a novel told consistently from the perspective of an adjunct, and Alex Kudera's Fight for Your Long Day is an excellent tome. The world needs his voice." Emily Toth, (Ms. Mentor), the Chronicle of Higher Education"The depiction of academic life had me both laughing and cringing at its accuracy. As in the best comic fiction, there is poignant undercurrent of seriousness in this novel. Kudera is the real deal." -Ron Rash, author of One Foot in Eden, John Parris, Chair in Appalachian Studies, Western Carolina University.