Labor and the American Revolution

by Philip S. Foner, Elizabeth Vandepaer

Genres: Labor, Politics, American

270 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 1976

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

[Jim Drewery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labor and the American Revolution is but one of dozens of books by the controversial marxist historian, Philip S. Foner. To say he was a prolific writer is indeed an understatement, Worldcat.org lists over two hundred volumes written or co-authored by him. Despite this voluminous body of work however, Foner's influence on the field has largely been marginalized by the controversial nature of his work, which is to be expected with any attempt to look at history from the bottom up, because of the chronic shortage of available primary sources left by the early working classes of previous eras. Undoubtedly his marxist views also had a very limiting impact on his influence as well. In 1941 he was targeted in a communist witch hunt and dismissed along with dozens of others from the faculty of New York's City College. His exile from academia lasted until 1967, when he finally returned to teaching at Lincoln University, a historically Black college in Pennsylvania, where he taught until 1979. In 1981 City College finally apologized to all of those who were fired forty years earlier, for what it called regretful violations of academic freedom.
In this volume Foner presents his answer to the generational question pondered by historians, about whether or not the American Revolution was really a revolution at all in the true sense of the word. That is a class struggle, aimed at leveling the playing field of democracy in the country, or purely a political quarrel between England and her American colonies. He concludes that the revolution was most assuredly a class struggle of this ilk; one to determine “who would rule at home”, as he quoted from the noted progressive historian Carl Becker in the preface. He asserts though that while the struggle was initially successful, in the end it failed to fulfill the promise which the workers of America had aspired to, for a truly universally representative democracy, where all were really equals in the rights citizenship at least.
The book is arranged in ten chapters primarily covering the revolutionary period of the 1760's and 1770's, although the final chapter discusses what Foner sees as a clear connection between the actions of the laboring class of this era, and the labor movements of the mid-nineteenth century. He starts with an informed accounting of the prevailing scholarship in the field concerning the working class in America during this era. Chapter two goes into the formation of the what are most famously known in history as the “Sons of Liberty”, a name he asserts was first used in Connecticut and was in common use throughout the colonies by 1766. Ironically he claims the name probably came from the noted Englishman, Colonel Isaac Barre, and was first uttered in a speech he made before the House of Commons in 1765. Foner's conclusion about the composition of these groups has long been disputed by many in the field as well. In contrast to the consensus view of a united patriotic front, he emphasizes division on the home front, stating that although the membership, “included professional men, lesser merchants, and even local officials, the rank and file were mechanics, tradesmen, and artificers.” He admits however that the leadership was “recruited from master craftsmen, merchants, and professional groups”, but then hedges that by saying they were “in general men of modest wealth who stood outside the merchant elite and exerted little political influence.”(36)
Chapters three through six detail the actions of workers in opposition to the well known political and economic crises and incidents of the age, from The Stamp and Townshend Acts, to the Boston Massacre and the fight to enforce the non-importation resolutions against British products in the colonies. Throughout these chapters Foner seeks to show that the Sons of Liberty vehemently opposed the elite ruling class on both sides of the Atlantic, often resorting to violence to impose the will of what consensus historians often call “the mob”. Aside from the obviously expected reference the Boston's famous “tea party”, Foner describes how the membership enforced its support of the non-importation resolutions by dumping tea in New York's harbor, as well as forced the return of tea ships in other ports to England still laden with their cargoes. He also cites numerous incidents where opposition to the Stamp Act turned violent, like in August, 1765 when sailors and dock workers “tore down the customs offices and destroyed the home of the Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson...a symbol of the aristocratic ruling clique of Massachusetts.”(49) Chapter seven, The Rise of the Mechanics, is another area of much contention between Foner and many of his peers, as it covers in great detail issues which often resulted in a power struggle within the Sons of Liberty bands. In his version the membership exerted their collective will, over the leadership's misgivings and protests, toward radical ends and eventually forcing the move to independence. This directly contrasts with the consensus view, which has the middling and elite classes bending the will of the mass to meet their own ends. The next two chapters deal largely with the First Continental Congress and the drafting of the various state constitutions and the interaction and influence asserted by the Sons of Liberty during that process. Finally in the last chapter he discusses the role of women and people of color in the revolution, before turning his attention to the often violent role played by the Sons of Liberty in combating the abuses of “monopolizers”, merchants and others whom they felt were taking advantage of war time shortages to make exorbitant profits.
It is always wise when reviewing an interpretative historical work to get to know the author's background and in this case that would be particularly prudent advice. Scholars should be aware that besides criticism of Foner's interpretation of history and his heavy progressive, marxist bias, there have been widespread charges made by reputable sources, that he routinely plagiarized from the unpublished papers of dozens of grad students over the years in his books. Additionally many have criticized Foner for shoddy scholarship, pointing to missing or incorrect citations in footnotes and even hinting at the possible fabrication of some original source material. Perhaps the most disturbing charge of all is that he actually destroyed some original records belonging to a labor organization. Although none of this was directed specifically at this book, a diligent scholar would be well advised to keep this information in mind.
Despite the stated shortcomings with this work and the obvious concern one must logically have about the integrity of the writer's scholastic housekeeping, this reviewer like many of Foner's staunchest critics in the past, still commends this as a highly useful piece of scholarship, which truly gives the reader a quite comprehensive picture of the role played by the urban working classes in bringing about the American Revolution.