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 "Click for larger image")
Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950
Rosemary Feurer
Cloth978-0-252-03087-1
$65.00
Paper978-0-252-07319-9
$25.00
| Pub Date: | 2006 |
| Pages: | 360 pages |
| Dimensions: | 6 x 9.25 in. |
The dynamic relationship between unionism and radicalism
After several failed attempts to organize workers in the early years of the Depression, District Eight of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) elected the openly communist William Sentner as president. Rosemary Feurer's Radical Unionism in the Midwest examines the story of the famously fierce battles between the Sentner-led UE workers and bitterly anti-union companies during the 1930s and '40s.
Feurer studies District Eight through the union backlash in the wake of the 1937-38 recessions, the growth of the district during World War II, and the postwar anticommunist drive that targeted Sentner. Based on this history, Feurer contests the conventional idea that the political perspectives of radicals held little significance for trade union behavior and strategies. From one of the longest sit-down strikes in U.S. history to their community campaigns to democratize union decision making, Feurer argues that radical leaders and a significant segment of UE workers developed a style of unionism that sought to connect union and community concerns in order to undermine business power in the community and on the shop floor.
"Her book is a work of careful synthesis, and the depth of her research makes it a vitally important contribution to labor history and the history of American Communism. . . . This important study successfully illustrates the power and potential of an honestly left-wing unionism in American communities in the 1930s and 1940s."--Journal of American History
"An excellent book. . . . The author's exhaustive research into more than one hundred manuscript collections and her innovative look at Left-led unions will definitely earn her high marks among academics. Yet, even will all of her scholarly accomplishments, it is the book's explicitly political overtones that will resonate with its activist readers. . . . A must read for anyone hoping to draw lessons for the future form the examples of the past."--Labor Studies Journal
"Feurer's book is excellent in examining the character and appeal of William Sentner and UE District 8. Her analysis is grounded in a very thorough treatment of relevant primary sources as well as the political economy and culture of St. Louis."--Journal of Illinois History
"Radicalism in the Midwest is an exceptional book. It's rigorously argued and documented. The strength of the book is the attention to detail, especially on the local level in the southern Midwest. . . . Worthy of a wide readership."--Labor History
"Rosemary Feurer, in Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950, has produced an important and engaging study of union activism in the first half of the twentieth century. . . . Feurer's approach is illuminating. . . . [and] has opened up a whole new set of possibilities for investigation of how workplace and community struggles have intersected, then and now."--Business History Review
"Rosemary Feurer's new book is unquestionably a successful effort to view the remarkable challenges faced by the American labour movement over a fifty year period through the lens of one mid-western community. . . . In an analysis that incorporates gender, race, politics, economics, and biography Feurer has made an enormous contribution to our understanding of how the American labour movement developed from the 1930s to the 1950s."--Left History
"In this deftly executed study. . . . Feurer reminds us that any study of industrial unionism must take seriously the contributions of radical labor activists."--Annals of Iowa
"This is a superb and much-needed study of St. Louis and its radical union tradition. Feurer's thick description of the culture of community unionism and her deft handling of the complex role of the Communist Party locally make for a book that will realign the debates of historians on a variety of subjects for years to come. In the bargain, she provides a compelling biographical account of Communist William Sentner, a legendary figure in the local and regional labor movement."--Shelton Stromquist, professor of history, University of Iowa
"Feurer's careful analysis, well aware of the contemporary crisis of organized labor, will quickly become the first book examined by labor scholars and activists who seek to find maps to a better future in the experiences of the past."--Peter Rachleff, professor of history, Macalester College
Rosemary Feurer is an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University.
Series:
The Working Class in American History
Subjects:
Labor Studies / Radical Studies / Midwest Regional / History, Am.: 20th C.
