American Labor and the Cold War
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Edited by:
Robert Cherny
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With contributions by:
William Issel
About this book
The American labor movement seemed poised on the threshold of unparalleled success at the beginning of the post-World War II era. Fourteen million strong in 1946, unions represented thirty five percent of non-agricultural workers. Why then did the gains made between the 1930s and the end of the war produce so few results by the 1960s?
This collection addresses the history of labor in the postwar years by exploring the impact of the global contest between the United States and the Soviet Union on American workers and labor unions. The essays focus on the actual behavior of Americans in their diverse workplaces and communities during the Cold War. Where previous scholarship on labor and the Cold War has overemphasized the importance of the Communist Party, the automobile industry, and Hollywood, this book focuses on politically moderate, conservative workers and union leaders, the medium-sized cities that housed the majority of the population, and the Roman Catholic Church. These are all original essays that draw upon extensive archival research and some upon oral history sources.
Author / Editor information
WILLIAM ISSEL is a professor of history at San Francisco State University.
KIERAN WALSH TAYLOR is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Topics
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Frontmatter
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Contents
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List of Abbreviations
vii -
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List of Illustrations
ix -
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Acknowledgments
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Introduction
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Labor and the Cold War: The Legacy of McCarthyism
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Uncivil War: An Oral History of Labor, Communism, and Community in Schenectady, New York, 1944–1954
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Mixed Melody: Anticommunism and the United Packinghouse Workers in California Agriculture, 1954–1961
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The United Packinghouse Workers of America, Civil Rights, and the Communist Party in Chicago
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“An Anarchist with a Program”: East Coast Shipyard Workers, the Labor Left, and the Origins of Cold War Unionism
85 -
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The Battle for Standard Coil: The United Electrical Workers, the Community Service Organization, and the Catholic Church in Latino East Los Angeles
118 -
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Popular Anticommunism and the UE in Evansville, Indiana
141 -
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“A Stern Struggle”: Catholic Activism and San Francisco Labor, 1934–1958
154 -
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Memories of the Red Decade: HUAC Investigations in Maryland
177 -
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Negotiating Cold War Politics: The Washington Pension Union and the Labor Left in the 1940s and 1950s
190 -
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The Lost World of United States Labor Education: Curricula at East and West Coast Communist Schools, 1944–1957
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Operation Dixie, the Red Scare, and the Defeat of Southern Labor Organizing
216 -
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“A Dangerous Demagogue”: Containing the Influence of the Mexican Labor-Left and Its United States Allies
245 -
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Contributors
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Index
281
