A concise, original, and illuminating interpretation of the rise and decline of American labor from the 1820s to the present, focusing on the role of the autonomous worker, the threat of employer reprisals, and the influence of external forces. Lively, coherent, and eminently readable...an excellent overview. Choice. Selected by Choice as an outstanding book for 1998. American Ways Series.

Chapter 1: Union Growth in Perspective
Chapter 2: Miners and Organized Labor
Chapter 3: Urban Workers and Organized Labor
Chapter 4: New Environments, New Challenges, 1897-1930
Chapter 5: The Labor Movement at High Tide, 1930-1953
Chapter 6: The Decline of American Labor

Daniel Nelson teaches American history at the University of Akron. He has also written Managers and Workers, Farm and Factory, and Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management.