Labor market politics and the Great War : the Department of Labor, the states, and the first U.S. Employment Service, 1907-1933 / William J. Breen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Breen, W. J. (William J.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Department of Labor--History.

United States.

United States Employment Service--History.

United States Employment Service.

Labor policy--United States--History--20th century.

Labor policy.

Labor policy--United States--States--History--20th century.

World War, 1914-1918--United States.

World War, 1914-1918.

Reconstruction (1914-1939)--United States.

Reconstruction (1914-1939).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (255 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Department of Labor seized the opportunity provided by the chaotic labor market conditions during World War I to expand the US Employment Service (USES) and to establish control of the national labor market. That attempt provoked a reaction on the part of states that had created their own employment services and were suspicious of the administrative capacity of the USDES. A prolonged administrative and political struggle ensued, involving not only the Department of Labor and the states but a number of government departments and agencies and the major interest groups involved in the labor market. William J. Breen's Labor Market Politics and the Great War is the first detailed study of the way in which federalism influenced the development of government labor market policy in the early twentieth century. For those interested in the continuing debate over the unique development of the American state, it suggests one reason why that development diverged from the European model. It also suggests the crucial role of Washington bureaucrats in promoting a powerful centralized state.

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Prewar Labor Market

1. State Initiatives and National Ambitions:Origins of the U.S. Employment Service

1917: Labor Market Politics in Wartime

2. Federalist Aspirations in the States

3. Nationalist Initiatives in the Department of Labor

4. The Seattle Labor Market Experiment

1918: Victory and Deftat

5. The Role of the War Labor Policies Board

6. A Federalist U.S. Employment Service

The US. Employment Service at War

7. The Industrial Northeast: Connecticut

8. The Midwest and South

Armistice and Aftermath

9. Reconstruction and Political Misjudgment, 1918-1919

10. Postwar Reckoning

Epilogue: Keeping the Federalist Faith, 1920-1933

Notes

Essay on Sources

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-214) and index.

ISBN:

1-61277-131-9

0-585-26233-0

OCLC:

45730256