Erin O'Brien's The Politics of Identity pushes past the settled oppositions to show how a politics of identities can mobilize, rather than undermine, collective action by workers. Drawing upon vivid worker portraits from extensive fieldwork, the author details in highly readable prose how we need to think more creatively if workers are to contest the indignities of the low-wage economy unfolding before us. Here is a book that lays the groundwork for renewed hope and optimism in an era of worker discontent." -- Sanford F. Schram