Fight Like Hell

“Kelly unearths the stories of the people—farm laborers, domestic workers, factory employees—behind some of the labor movement’s biggest successes.”
—The New York Times
“Kim Kelly's debut is a knockout... Catalyzed by a passionate voice and brisk pacing, Fight Like Hell will leave you with a renewed sense of readiness in your bones.”
—Morgan Jerkins, New York Times Bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing, Wandering in Strange Lands, and Caul Baby
“You’ll never look at American history the same way again.”
—Esquire
“As Kim Kelly writes in her book, every story is a labor story. [Fight Like Hell] offers a fuller picture of the history of labor in America and shows how fights previously not considered labor fights were in fact battles for workers' rights, whether it was abolishing slavery, liberating women, ensuring those disabled by work got fair treatment and those born with disabilities had a chance at a fair wage.”
—Eric Garcia, author of We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation
“Fight Like Hell is the most important book on labor published in a generation."
—Shane Burley, author of Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse
“In FIGHT LIKE HELL you'll find the true stories of people who have fought to win a better world for themselves and everyone else who has to work for a living.”
—Jeremy Brecher, author of National Bestseller Strike!
“In this remarkable interweaving of past and present, Kim Kelly brings America’s rich (and bloody) labor history, its most marginalized workers, and their most recent battles to vivid life [...] At once urgent and insightful, FIGHT LIKE HELL not only informs, it inspires.”
—Joseph A. McCartin, Executive Director, Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor & the Working Poor, Georgetown University 
“A rousing look at the contributions of marginalized groups to the U.S. labor movement [and] a powerful call for today’s workers to fight for their rights.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“Freshly inclusive [...] an excellent entry point for a new understanding of work in America.”
—Booklist
“A well-reasoned argument for restoring unions to their former role in the lives of American workers.”
—Kirkus
“Meticulously researched and beautifully told, [in FIGHT LIKE HELL] Kim Kelly has established herself as a true champion for the working class.”
—Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO President
“Kim Kelly throws wide the doors to inspire all of us to seize power for ourselves by showing how—yesterday and today—the oppressed overlooked, the outcasts and the misfits, shaped history. ”
—Sara Nelson, International President, Association of of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO
“Kim Kelly has written the perfect book for the era of the "Great Resignation.” Filled with revolutionary spirit, Fight Like Hell highlights the contributions of labor leaders both known and obscure, deftly connecting the struggles of the past to the present while proving that every story is a labor story when workers matter. ”
—Elizabeth Catte, historian and author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia and Pure America: Eugenics and The Making of Modern Virginia
“Kim Kelly is a fresh and compelling voice telling the critical stories of working families that so many others ignore. The struggles of workers to form and build their unions in the face of exploitation and abuse have gone untold for far too long. This book breaks through that silence and brings the voices of workers and their families to the forefront where they belong.”
—Cecil Roberts, International President, United Mine Workers of America
“The stories Kim Kelly tells provide examples of inspiration and often hope—at a time when the inequalities and injustices that working people endure must no longer be tolerated. And they remind us that nothing changes unless we fight like hell for it.”
—Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)