Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of an Honorable Mention from the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Association and a 1989 Western Heritage Award for Significant Scholarly Research and selected for the 1990 ALA "Best Bibliographies in History" list.
"Kazin's book is about far more than the construction industry: it also illuminates the social and political history of San Francisco. . . . Gracefully written and adorned with evocative portraits of local political and labor leaders,
Barons of Labor is absorbing reading as well as a fine piece of history."--
The Nation"A bold and pioneering work that revises our understanding of skilled craftsmen and the politics of class in the Progressive Era."--
Journal of American History"
Barons of Labor is superb work, carefully researched and written with clarity, vitality, and wit, a pleasure as well as an education to read."--
Labor History"Kazin's book is about far more than the construction industry: it also illuminates the social and political history of San Francisco. . . . Gracefully written and adorned with evocative portraits of local political and labor leaders,
Barons of Labor is absorbing reading as well as a fine piece of history."--
The Nation"A bold and pioneering work that revises our understanding of skilled craftsmen and the politics of class in the Progressive Era."--
Journal of American History"
Barons of Labor, is superb work, carefully researched and written with clarity, vitality, and wit, a pleasure as well as an education to read."--
Labor HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 3
I The Rise to Power
1 "Where Unionism Holds Undisputed Sway": San Francisco in the Progressive Era 13
2 Ascent to Isolation, 1896-1902 36
II The Use of Power
3 Leaders 67
4 The Closed-Shop Empire: From Job Site to Labor Temple 82
5 Social Conflict and the Earthquake, 1903-1907 113
6 Reform, Utopia, and Racism: The Politics of California Craftsmen 145
7 The Misgoverning of San Francisco, 1908-1911 177
II The Loss of Power
8 Perils of Compromise in the Exposition City, 1912-1915 217
9 Dynamics of Defeat, 1916-1921 234
10 The Building Trades in an Open-Shop City 270
Conclusion 277
Appendixes 293
Index 307
