The CIO, 1935-1955

by Robert H. Zieger

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807866443
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/09/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	504
Lexile:	1510L (what's this?)
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Robert H. Zieger, professor of history at the University of Florida, is author of Rebuilding the Pulp and Paper Workers' Union and American Workers, American Unions

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A finely crafted volume that draws upon a wide array of archival sources and oral histories as well as the burgeoning secondary literature on labor in the 1930s and 1940s.—West Virginia History



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



A well-paced, definitive narrative.—Chicago Tribune



[A] comprehensive and illuminating new history.—In These Times



This thorough, well-documented narrative, based on an array of archival records and oral histories, will benefit and interest a variety of readers.—Choice



Will be standard reading for anyone interested in this crucial period of American labor history.—American Historical Review



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



This is institutional history at its best.—Business 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



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

Editorial Reviews

Will be standard reading for anyone interested in this crucial period of American labor history.—American Historical Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zieger cannot be praised too much for his in-depth description and analysis of the CIO.—Southeastern Political Review

The CIO is a masterful work by a talented, mature scholar.—Ohio History

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

From the Publisher