Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire

In this first-rate study, historian Bond (Trade and Taboo) makes the case that organized labor was a powerful force in the ancient world. Focusing on Rome, but pointing to documented instances of labor strikes stretching back to ancient Egypt, Bond notes that ancient Roman clubs and associations functioned similarly to modern trade unions—members “often shared a common profession or industry,” and the groups provided both “financial and social support” as well as pathways for organization (mobilizing different Roman collectives was critical during elections, Bond explains). Bond highlights signs of collective bargaining throughout Roman history, ranging from the “Struggle of the Orders” during the early Republican period, when plebeians withheld military service as a tactic in their fight for political equality, to the “tumult of the late Republic,” when the Roman senate attempted to quell “a rising tide of populism” by banning collectives from meeting. In one particularly colorful chapter, she studies the political activism of “charioteer factions” in the late imperial period—more than just the fan clubs that they’re sometimes portrayed as, Bond argues that at their core these factions were “athletic and entertainment unions” that were using their sway for political means. (By empire’s end, charioteer teams were leading mass protests and negotiating the release of political prisoners.) A sterling example of historical revisionism, this foregrounds the human-level struggles at stake in the ancient world. (Feb.)