American labor leaders : personalities and forces in the labor movement / Charles A. Madison.

This item includes cut outs of the book description from the book jackets, taped to the interior back cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 445-460) and index.

I. Introduction: craftsmen into wageworkers --

Part one: labor's early efforts. II. William H. Sylvis: America's first "labor's Champion" -- III. Uriah S. Stephens and Terence V. Powderly: plumed knights of labor --

Part two: the American federation of labor. IV. Samuel Gompers: "chief" of the business unionists -- V. William Green: in Gompers' footsteps -- VI. William L. Hutcheson: boss of the "fighting carpenters" -- VIII. Joseph Barondess to David Dubinsky: from the sweatshop to industrial leadership --

Part three: aristocrats and revolutionaries. IX. Alexander F. Whitney: the railroads and the brotherhoods -- X. William D. Haywood: the insurgence of the I.W.W --

Part four: the congress of the industrial organizations. XI. Philip Murray: the steel workers and the CIO [Congress of Industrial Organizations] -- XII. Sidney Hillman: enlightened leader of the amalgamated -- XIII. Walter Reuther: The dynamic democracy of the UAW -- XIV. Harry Bridges: the militantly left-wing ILWU -- XV. Whither labor? Problems and prospects.

'The aim of this book is to give a coherent and realistic account of the development of organized labor through a survey of the outstanding trade unions and their leaders. The introductory chapter describes the conditions of work up to the Civil War and traces the feeble first efforts at organization. Part One discusses the early attempts at national organization and the reformist aims of the outstanding leaders. The fiver chapters of Part Two deal with the men and unions that have stamped the American Federation of Labor with their own limited outlook and craft emphasis - Lewis and Dubinsky providing the positive divergences. Part Three juxtaposes the "aristocratic" railroad brotherhoods with the radical I.W.W. The chapters in Part Four are devoted to the unions that have, since 1933, invaded the mass-production industries and built up powerful and progressive labor organizations. A final postscript touches on current conditions and possible prospects.' -from the introduction

'Here is the story of the development of labor's self-consciousness and economic strength in America. It is an essentially human story, as reflected in the careers of the outstanding trade unions and their leaders, from desperate early efforts and repeated defeats to the achievement of a major position in our National economy. Against the background of work conditions up to the time of the Civil Ware, the book describes the first early attempts of labor at national organization and the reformist aims of the principal leaders of those years [...] the men whom Charles Madison has skillfully delineated in this book are not only important in their own right but, taken together, represent every significant aspect of organized labor. They include the early utopian reformers, the business unionists as well as the aggressive industrial unionists, the exponents of free enterprise and the expounders of left-wing militancy, the labor statesmen along with the self-seeking opportunists. Their policies and practices, their defeats and triumphs - all are treated factually, yet with a sympathy quickened by human decency and justice. No other book on the American labor movement had drawn such a clear and perceptive pictures of the forces of personal leadership which have shaped its collective power.' -- from the book cover

From the library of Roscoe and Oletta Proctor.