History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Vol. 9: The T.U.E.L. to the End of the Gompers Era

History of the Labor Movement in the United States #9

by Philip S. Foner

Traces the history of labor unions and the labor movement from America's colonial era, through the Industrial Revolution, to the present

Genres: History, Labor, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

About the author

Philip Sheldon Foner was an American labor historian and teacher. Foner was a prolific author and editor of more than 100 books.

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I doubt there are many people reading these books sequentially, but if you are one of the few, I guess by volume 9, you more or less know what you're getting into. This penultimate volume in the set is one of the longer books, but that doesn't mean that covers a longer time period than usual. Indeed, the 400 or so pages really spans just a few years, and ends, as the subtitle suggests, with the death of Samuel Gompers.

Foner wishes to position the TUEL as a counterpoint to the AFL during this timeframe, but even in his own account, Foner has difficulty portraying the organization as effective in pretty much any way. The league, a left-wing educational organization, tried to skirt the AFL's prohibit on "duel unionism" by not being a true labor organization.

This volume also contains several accounts of various labor fights of the time, with special focuses on miners and garment workers. We also have the usual discussions of various schisms, mostly in relation to the presidential election of 1924 and the LaFollette candidacy and failure of the Progressive Party. There is a persistent criticism, as in previous volumes, of craft unionism (vs. industrial unionism). There is also an interesting chapter devoted to Russian American Industrial Corporation (RAIC), an effort by elements of the US labor movement to support establishment of a modern textile factory in Soviet Russia.

At the end of the volume, Foner reflects on Gompers' life, including his contributions to American labor and his shortcomings as Foner sees them. Throughout this entire series, Foner has treated Gompers as an antagonist, so it is refreshing that his final judgement is more evenhanded.