American Labor and the Cold War: Grassroots Politics and Postwar Political Culture

by Robert W. Cherny (Editor), William Issel (Editor), Kiernan Walsh Taylor (Editor)

The American labor movement seemed poised on the threshold of unparalleled success at the beginning of the post-World War II era. Fourteen million strong in 1946, unions represented thirty five percent of non-agricultural workers. Why then did the gains made between the 1930s and the end of the war produce so few results by the 1960s? This collection addresses the history of labor in the postwar years by exploring the impact of the global contest between the United States and the Soviet Union on American workers and labor unions. The essays focus on the actual behavior of Americans in their diverse workplaces and communities during the Cold War. Where previous scholarship on labor and the Cold War has overemphasized the importance of the Communist Party, the automobile industry, and Hollywood, this book focuses on politically moderate, conservative workers and union leaders, the medium-sized cities that housed the majority of the population, and the Roman Catholic Church. These are all original essays that draw upon extensive archival research and some upon oral history sources.

Genres: History, Politics, Labor, American History, Religion

312 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1983

About the author

Robert W. Cherny is professor emeritus of history at San Francisco State University. His publications deal with U.S. politics in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and with the history of San Francisco, California, and the West. His most recent book, A Short History of San Francisco (2026) draws upon his previous work in an effort, he says, "to sort out what's most significant and what's most interesting (not always the same thing)." His other recent books include The Coit Tower Murals: New Deal Art and Political Controversy in San Francisco (2024), which focuses on the once controversial murals at Coit Tower and then looks more generally at the influence of those murals and at recent controversies over New Deal art in the city. Among his other recent books, San Francisco Reds: Communists in the Bay Area, 1919-1958 (2024), explores the history of the Communist Party through the experiences of some fifty individuals active in the Bay Area, most of whom joined in the 1920s or 1930s, and most of whom left the party in late 1950s. Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend (2023), the biography of the long-time leader of the Pacific Coast longshore and warehouse union, deals with labor and politics on the Pacific Coast from the 1930s to the 1980s. Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art (2017), examines New Deal and Cold War art and politics through the life of a San Francisco artist.