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February 2022 Vol. 59 No. 6

This volume by Vergara (California State Univ., Los Angeles) investigates the evolution and disintegration of unemployment laws, policies, and benefits in Chile from 1900 to 1989. The author's extensive research illustrates the interplay of international and domestic, top-down and grassroots efforts to influence unemployment discourses and who unemployment assistance could cover. As she explains in her epilogue, which covers the years of the dictatorship, when employment opportunities were eliminated for large portions of the population, labor protections were diminished and unemployment benefits were reduced. The main themes of the book are “job security and workers’ struggles for labor rights, the historical limits of unemployment assistance, and the relationship between global and local debates on unemployment” (p. 153). The book's massive notes section indicates that Vergara has enough material for a series of books. If she pursues that, areas worthy of further discussion are the role of miners in the labor movement and the violent repression with which the government reacted, such as the massive strike and subsequent massacre of thousands of miners, their families, and allies in Iquique in 1907; the experiences of women, indigenous peoples, immigrants, and other minority groups; and the post-dictatorship years.

--K. Sorensen, Bentley University

Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.