The mysterious disappearance (censorship?) of Roger Swardson's book from Amazon

by Glen Wallace

Update: I recently discovered a listing for his book on the British Amazon website  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Out-America-Roger-Swardson/dp/0465017002, so why not on the US website?

I've recently discovered that Roger Swardson's book 'Down and Out in America' has disappeared from any listing on Amazon's website.  It has just disappeared even though for a long time I remember that the book could still be found at least as an entry on the site even though the book has been out of print for a long time and no used copies were available.  I have to wonder if this omission by a mega corporation of a book that is so supportive of labor rights and does such a good job of highlighting the plight of the underclass in a very entertaining manner is accidental or deliberate.  I thought that Amazon would continue to list an entry for even the most obscure work that is out of print and without any available used copies.   It seems like an awfully big coincidence that a book like Swardson's stops being listed from a corporate site like Amazon. Here is a book that could be considered critical of the sort of general labor practices of low pay for workers that a corporation like Amazon has become dependent on for its product shipping distribution networks to maintain its already low profit margins that has allowed it to continue its dominance in online retail.   Any resurgence in the labor movement in this country I imagine could easily first hit Amazon, given that much of the shipping work, due to its nature, could not be outsourced and therefore give leverage to the workers in Amazons shipping warehouses to demand better pay and working conditions.  And even though his book was never a big seller, I think that his writing style could, given the chance, popularize a new labor movement. And therefore, I wonder if someone at Amazon saw that and decided to nip any chance of such a labor resurgence from happening in the bud by making Swardson's book disappear from Amazon's database.