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The CIO, 1935-1955 - by Robert H Zieger (Paperback)
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Highlights
- The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) encompassed the largest sustained surge of worker organization in American history.
- About the Author: Robert H. Zieger (1938-2013) was Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Florida.
- 504 Pages
- Political Science, Labor & Industrial Relations
Description
About the Book
Explores the process of constitution making in each of the thirteen original states and shows that the framers greatly feared arbitrary power and mistrusted legislators' ability to represent the people's interests. For these reasons, they broadened the suffrage and introduced frequent elections as a check against legislative self-interest. Kruman's analysis challenges Gordon Wood's now-classic argument that, at the beginning of the Revolution, the founders placed great faith in legislators as representatives of the people.
Book Synopsis
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) encompassed the largest sustained surge of worker organization in American history. Robert Zieger charts the rise of this industrial union movement, from the founding of the CIO by John L. Lewis in 1935 to its merger under Walter Reuther with the American Federation of Labor in 1955. Exploring themes of race and gender, Zieger combines the institutional history of the CIO with vivid depictions of working-class life in this critical period. Zieger details the ideological conflicts that racked the CIO even as its leaders strove to establish a labor presence at the heart of the U.S. economic system. Stressing the efforts of industrial unionists such as Sidney Hillman and Philip Murray to forge potent instruments of political action, he assesses the CIO's vital role in shaping the postwar political and international order. Zieger's analysis also contributes to current debates over labor law reform, the collective bargaining system, and the role of organized labor in a changing economy.
Review Quotes
"The CIO is a masterful work by a talented, mature scholar." -- Ohio History
"An enormously useful history of the tumultuous career of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, one bound to be treated as the definitive account for years to come." -- Business History Review
"An excellent history of an important American institution. Zieger does a good job of setting the context in which the union developed and of stressing the difficulties inherent in organizing workers in capitalist firms. His work deserves attention from labor historians of all stripes." -- Contemporary Sociology
"Can be relied upon as the most authoritative factual overview and the most detailed interpretive reading of the CIO's history we have." -- Journal of Southern History
"Extensively researched, solidly argued, and well-written. . . . A major achievement by a distinguished scholar and a welcome addition to the literature." -- Journal of American History
"It is probably the best starting point for any effort to understand the twentieth-century labor movement. . . . Zieger's book is a welcome addition to the history of the labor movement, both for its balanced treatment of events and interpretative issues and for its potential to encourage new insights into a familiar but fascinating subject." -- International Labor and Working Class History
"Sets a new standard for the study of the mid-twentieth-century labor movement . . . . Manages to strike that most elusive of balances between history from above and below. . . . A major accomplishment." -- Reviews in American History
"Will be standard reading for anyone interested in this crucial period of American labor history." -- American Historical Review
"Zieger cannot be praised too much for his in-depth description and analysis of the CIO." -- Southeastern Political Review
"Zieger's fine book provides us with an essential foundation for understanding the modern labor movement, its institutions, and its rank and file." -- Industrial and Labor Relations Review
About the Author
Robert H. Zieger (1938-2013) was Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Florida. His books include Rebuilding the Pulp and Paper Workers' Union and American Workers, American Unions