Law and the shaping of the American labor movement / William E. Forbath.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forbath, William E., 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor unions--Political activity--United States--History.

Labor unions.

Working class--Political activity--United States.

Working class.

Labor disputes--United States--History.

Labor disputes.

Labor laws and legislation--United States--History.

Labor laws and legislation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (230 p. ) None

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why did American workers, unlike their European counterparts, fail to forge a class-based movement to pursue broad social reform? Was it simply that they lacked class consciousness and were more interested in personal mobility? In a richly detailed survey of labor law and labor history, William Forbath challenges this notion of American "individualism." In fact, he argues, the nineteenth-century American labor movement was much like Europe's labor movements in its social and political outlook, but in the decades around the turn of the century, the prevailing attitude of American trade unionists changed. Forbath shows that, over time, struggles with the courts and the legal order were crucial to reshaping labor's outlook, driving the labor movement to temper its radical goals.

Contents:

Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Broad Contexts Recasting American "Exceptionalism" The State of Courts and Parties 2. Judicial Review in Labor's Political Culture Samuel Gompers and in Jacobs Hours Laws in Illinois Hours Laws in Colorado Pressed toward a Minimalist Politics 3. Government by Injunction The Origins and Dimensions of Government by Injunction The Origins of Governmentby Injunction in Railway Strikes The Rise and Repression of City-Wide Boycotts 4. Semi-Outlawry The Usurpation of Local Polities Courts and the Uses of Police, Guards and Troops Labor's Resort to Injunctions 5. The Language of the Law and the Remaking of Labor's Rights Consciousness "Labor's Whole Gospel Is Liberty of Contract" Labor's Constitution A Great Popular Defiance Anti-Injunction Laws before Norris-LaGuardia The Norris-LaGuardia Act Conclusion Appendix A: Labor Legislation in the Courts, 1885-1930 Appendix B: Approximating the Numbers of Labor Injunctions and Their Relation to Other Strike Statistics, 1880-1930 Appendix C: Judicial Treatment of Statutes Seeking to Protect Union Organizing and Action by Revising Equity and Common Law Doctrine Index

Notes:

"An earlier version of this work appeared in the Harvard law review 102, no. 6 (April 1989)"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674263543

0674263545

9780674037083

0674037081

OCLC:

923111054