Description
Book SynopsisThis book, designed to give a survey history of American labor from colonial times to the present, is uniquely well suited to speak to the concerns of today s teachers and students.
Table of ContentsList of Figures ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Preface xvii
1 Conditions of Labor in Colonial America 1
Life and Labor in the Colonies 8
Workers, Politics, and Revolution 15
2 Varieties of Worker Resistance and the Emergence of the First Unions 19
The Origins of Worker Organization 20
Early Unions 24
Law versus Labor 28
The Growth of Labor Organization 30
3 The Growth of the Market and Labor’s Response 33
Workingmen’s Parties 34
Leadership 38
Political Action 42
4 Labor Organizing in the 1830s 47
Union Growth 48
A National Labor Movement? 50
An Urge to Strike 51
An Employer Counterattack 54
The National Trades’ Union 56
The Decline of Unionism 60
5 Free Labor in an Emerging Industrial Economy 62
Industrialism, Technological Change, and Reform 67
Rebuilding a Union Movement 75
The Coming of War 77
6 Toward National Organization 81
The National Labor Union 87
The NLU and Social Reform 92
Depression and Union Decline 95
7 An Era of Upheaval 97
Unrest and Conflict 98
The Great Railroad Strikes 101
The Haymarket Square Riot 104
8 The Rise and Decline of the Knights of Labor 107
The Origins of the Knights of Labor 108
The Rise of the Knights 117
The Decline of the Knights 122
9 The American Federation of Labor 126
The Triumph of Business Unionism 126
Samuel Gompers and the New Union Model 128
The Emergence of the AFL 132
The Principles and Policies of the AFL 135
10 Labor Conflict and Economic Crisis in the 1890s 139
Worker Resistance and Industrial Conflict 140
Labor, Populism, and Socialism 151
Labor at Ebb Tide 153
11 The Labor Question in the Progressive Era 155
Employers and Unions Experiment with Accommodation 157
The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 158
The Employers Fight Back 163
AFL Political Action and a Nascent Labor–Democratic Alliance 167
Organizing Immigrant Workers 173
12 The Rise and Repression of Labor Radicalism 177
The Rise of the IWW 178
The Spirit of the IWW 181
The Lawrence Strike 183
The Decline, Repression, and Lasting Legacy of the IWW 186
13 The Great War's Ambiguous Legacy 191
Postwar Labor Upheaval 195
The Last Throes of Postwar Labor Militancy, 1919 to 1922 202
14 Economic Change and Union Retreat in the 1920s 206
The American Plan and the Open Shop 209
Welfare Capitalism 213
The Failure of Insurgent Politics, 1922 to 1924 216
The AFL after Gompers 218
The Demoralization of Organized Labor 220
15 The New Deal 223
Section 7(a) and the Revival of Organizing 223
The Wagner Act 230
The New Deal Political Order 233
16 The Rise of the Congress of Industrial Organizations 242
John L. Lewis and the CIO 245
The Impact of the CIO 257
17 Labor and the New Deal State 264
War, Lewis, and the Election of 1940 269
18 World War II 279
The NWLB and Labor Politics 289
Wartime Racial Conflict 293
The Postwar Strike Wave, 1945 and 1946 295
A New Industrial Relations System 300
19 Retrenchment, Cold War, and Consolidation, 1946 to 1955 302
Labor, Taft-Hartley, and Politics 305
The Purge of Labor’s Left Wing 312
A United Labor Movement 314
AFL-CIO: A “Sleepy Monopoly” 319
20 Turbulent Years, 1955 to 1972 321
The Onset of Organized Labor’s Decline 321
Corruption and Deepening Conflict 324
Automation and Alienation 330
Labor, Civil Rights, and the Great Society 334
The Rise of Public Employee Unionism 339
War and Division 341
21 The Great Reversal: Workers and Unions, 1973 to 1994 344
Economic Crisis and Its Aftermath 344
Restructuring the Labor Force 346
The Rise of Conservative Politics and Neoliberal Policy 350
The Emerging Crisis of Unionism 359
Harbingers of Deepening Crisis: Mass Production and Transportation 365
22 Workers and Unions at the Millennium 369
Rising Resistance and Its Limitations 369
A Change of Direction for Labor 373
Economic Troubles, Political Setbacks, and War 376
Improvising in Difficult Times 380
Walmart, the “Fissured Workplace,” and Weakened Regulation 382
Dissension, Schism, and Political Breakthrough 386
23 A Precarious Moment 393
Bailouts, Job Insecurity, and Lowered Labor Standards 394
Toward an Unequal Society 397
The Obama Presidency’s Mixed Legacy 399
A Renewed Assault on Unions and Collective Bargaining 404
Death Throes or Birth Pangs? 406
Epilogue: An Uncharted Path 413
Further Reading 416
Index 447
