Theories of the Labor Movement

by John T. Dunlop (Contributor), A. Lozovsky (Contributor), Alan Dawley (Contributor)

Respecting both the history a labor theories and the variety of theoretical points of view concerning the labor movement, this collection of readings includes selections by Karl Marx, V. I. Lenin, William Haywood, Georges Sorel, Stanley Aronowitz, John R. Commons, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Thorstein Veblen, Henry Simons, and John Kenneth Galbraith, among others.

Intending this as a text for classroom use, Larson and Nissen have arranged the readings according to the social role assigned to the labor movement by each theory. The text's major divisions consider the labor movement as an agent of revolution, as a business institution, as an agent of industrial reform, as a psychological reaction to industrialism, as a moral force, as a destructive monopoly, and as a subordinate mechanism in pluralist industrial society. Such groupings allow for ready comparison of divergent views of the origins, development, and future of the labor movement.

408 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 1987

About the author

JOHN DUNLOP, M.D. (Johns Hopkins University, 1973), practices medicine in Zion, IL, and serves as an adjunct professor at Trinity International University. He is board certified in geriatrics, holds a masters degree in bioethics, and is a fellow of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.