History of the Labor Movement in the United States, Vol. 5: The AFL in the Progressive Era

History of the Labor Movement in the United States #5

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: Labor, History, Nonfiction

293 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1979

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]

The fifth volume of Philip Foner's expansive history of the labor movement in the U.S. is substantially shorter than the previous four volumes; in fact is less than half the length of its predecessors. Though the subtitle is "The AFL in the Progressive Era 1910-1915," the actual substance of the book is focused on a handful of high profile labor battles that took place around this time frame. There isn't much focus on the AFL per se, except to note whether or not the unions involved in these conflicts were AFL-affiliated and to what degree Samuel Gompers and the AFL bureaucracy backed them.

Major topics discussed are: railroad strikes in Pennsylvania, conflicts involving miners in Colorado (including discussion of the infamous "Ludlow Massacre" later sung about by Woody Guthrie) and West Virginia, and struggles of garment workers in New York. Strangely, there is almost no discussion, other than a brief aside, of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which occurred during the time period in question. Odd that one of the most galvanizing and well-remembered episodes of injustice against workers is omitted here, when so much of the last part of the book is dedicated to garment workers.

This volume suffers from a lack of overarching narrative, and begins eventually to feel like a version of the Arnold Toynbee quote: "History is just one damned thing after another." If I have my facts straight, this volume (1987) was released more than 20 years after volume 4 (1965), which is an awful long break between them. Especially given the greatly abbreviated length of the book, it has a curiously unfinished feel about it, even after the 20 year wait.