Prompted by the decrease in academic and practitioner membership in the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) and declining interest in the field, Whalen (economics, Utica College and Cornell U. School of Industrial and Labor Relations) compiles 12 essays that discuss new directions in the study of work and employment. Essays, which developed out of a symposium held at the annual meeting of LERA in 2007, focus on industrial relations in the US and address how the field must be broadened beyond the study of just unions and collective bargaining, to research on methods of revitalizing the field, the effects of legal reforms, rebuilding institutions, including journals and schools, and moving the field forward in a global society through changes in curriculum and university programs. Contributors are industrial relations and other business scholars from the US, Australia, and Canada. The volume is aimed at practitioners, and industrial relations, labor studies, sociology, and business professors and scholars. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)