Labor's Untold Story: The Adventure Story of the Battles, Betrayals and Victories of American Working Men and Women

by Richard O. Boyer, Herbert M. Morais

Fundamentally, labor's story is the story of the American people. To view it narrowly, to concentrate on the history of specific trade unions or on the careers of individuals and their rivalries, would be to miss the point that the great forces which have swept the American people into action have been the very forces that have also molded labor. Trade unionism was born as an effective national movement amid the great convulsion of the Civil War and the fight for black freedom... Labor suffered under depressions which spurred the whole American people into movement in the seventies, in the eighties, and in the nineties. It reached its greatest heights when it joined hands with farmers, small businessmen, and the black people in the epic Populist revolts of the 1890's and later in the triumph that was the New Deal. For labor has never lived in isolation or progressed without allies. Always it has been in the main stream of American life,... Labor's story, by its very nature, is synchronized at every turn with the growth and development of American monopoly. Its great leap forward into industrial unionism was an answering action to the development of trusts and great industrial empires. Labor's grievances, in fact the very conditions of its life, have been imposed by its great antagonist, that combination of industrial and financial power often known as Wall Street. The mind and actions of William H. Sylvis, the iron molder who founded the first effective national labor organization, can scarcely be understood without also an understanding of the genius and cunning of his contemporary, John D. Rockefeller, father of the modern trust. In the long view of history the machinations of J. P. Morgan, merging banking and industrial capital as he threw together ever larger combinations of corporate power controlled by fewer and fewer men, may have governed the course of American labor more than the plans of Samuel Gompers

Genres: History, Labor, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, School

399 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Richard O. Boyer was an American freelance journalist. Boyer worked a various newspapers, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Boston Herald, New Orleans Item, and Dallas Times Herald. Boyer co-founders the Boston Newspaper Guild. He contributed to The New Yorker magazine during the 1930s and 1940s. In the late 1940s, he was foreign correspondent for PM newspaper in Germany, France, Italy, and Central America. He was also editor of U.S. Week. In 1948, he was an editor of the cultural monthly magazine Masses & Mainstream.

Before appearing at a Senate hearing, he had written for the Daily Worker. He was implicated in Winston Burdett's June 1955 testimony before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee hearings as a Communist. The Senate subpoenaed Boyer in November 1955 and he testified the next January.[citation needed] At the hearing, Boyer refused to answer questions about his affiliations with the Communist Party, under the protection of the First and Fifth Amendment. He was one of many witnesses in 1956 called by the Subcommittee in an "inquiry into New York press. To questions of whether he was a Communist or whether others were party members, the write invoked both his First and Fifth Amendments. Privately, however, Boyer identified himself as a Communist, saying that he had been a party member from the 1930s until 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev, the then Soviet leader, disclosed the secrets of the Stalin regime."

Reviews

[Minku · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever bitched and moaned about how long the bus or train is taking to get to your stop? Of course you have. But have you ever stopped to think about the workers (besides yourself) who made the roads, rails, buildings, clothing, food, and everything else you need to live your modern life?

This is the history of post-Civil-War America that everyone needs to read, and they'll realize that the fight against human slavery is FAR from over. There are several other essential labor history books, one of them being "Strike!" by Jeremy Brecher.

This book is really great up until the final chapter, where the author predicts some kind of victory or revival of the labor movement (in the '70s i think)... not anticipating neoliberal globalization. Hehehe... uhhhhh.

[Kitap · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me a long time ago by Nodozejoze, but I kept putting off reading it because, honestly, labor history always struck me as a real snooze. I figured that because work is boring, reading about working and workers must also be boring. Boy, was I wrong. This book has been a page-turner from the first. The stories of the injustices perpetrated against working men, women, and children, usually with the imprimatur of the state and federal governments and the muscle of the police, military, and National Guard, has been eye-opening and enraging. If you are one of those folks who has bought the line that soldiers and police, rather than rebels and dissenters, gave you your freedoms, you might not know what to make of these stories of Guardsmen opening fire on crowds of women and children, of cops shooting unarmed protesters in the back, and of the judiciary knowingly framing and sending innocent men to their deaths, simply because of their political views and opinions.

I also learned much about USAmerican history that was overlooked by my "Advanced Placement" high school history class. For instance, I had no idea that unionized working people in the North saw the Civil War as a fight for the survival of living wages and the dignity of working people. (After all, if chattel slavery had been extended into the USAmerican West, as was the dream of the South, it would have made working conditions for wage slaves even more intolerable than they already were, in the same way that outsourcing USAmerican industry to Mexico, and then Vietnam and China, has driven down the standard of living for working USAmericans.) The same greedhead corruption of partisan politics, mainstream media, and Protestant Christianity that sparked the OWS movement in the 21st century were in place to oppose the working people who sought better working and living conditions in the 19th century. The same mindless epithets of "Anarchist" and "Communist" and "unAmerican" were used as liberally in 1880 as they were in 1980, to describe those who sought another way of doing business (literally).

Labor's Untold History ends in 1955, with an upswing in USAmerican labor in the wake of the Cold War Red Scare and McCarthyism. The authors had high hopes for the future of labor in the U.S. I wonder what they would make of the present, with real wages that haven't gone up in 40 years, the widest gap between rich and poor in 80 years, and the lowest rates of union membership in a half-century. Learning about our shared history as working people might help to turn the tide.

[The other John · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to be careful when you read some history books. You have to read with caution, testing each paragraph, sometimes each sentence, to see if there might be some sort of agenda hidden amongst the author's prose. That's not a concern with this tome. Misters Boyer and Morais wear their agenda on their sleeves. Labor's Untold Story is the story of the labor movement from the left-wing point of view. J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and the Pinkerton Detective Agency are the bad guys; Gene Debs, Bill Haywood and the IWW are the heroes. The book covers the movement from the years immediately following the Civil War to the Eisenhower administration--the present day back when the book was first published. As a union member living a comfortable middle class American lifestyle, I read the book straddling the fence. I was a bit leery of rooting for the fervent socialists, even as I rejoiced over their occasional victories against the injustices perpetrated by the corporations and monopolists. But like any history written by the underdog, it is well worth reading, if for no other reason than to consider the well-known stories of history from a different perspective.

[C. Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm on page 383 of 402 of Labor's Untold Story: Nonfiction, referring to authentic sources such as the Annual Report of the Attorney-General of the U.S., Congressional Records, the Daily Miners' Journal 1877, the New York Times and Tribune as early as 1877 and 1887, the authors even document their sources. I question the competency of those who condemn the authors and who ignore the immense array of primary sources and periodicals listed on pgs. 382-384. How can anyone ignore the Report of the Education and Labor Committee of the Senate on the Relations between Labor and Capital published in 1885? This is an example of genuine history, of the tribulations that helpless laborers have suffered.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel that at first glance this book could almost be classified as communistic propaganda. I says only positive things about the labour movement and strictly negative things about the businessmen and industry. It accuses modern industry of crimes varying from murder to evicting people from their homes. The labour movement leaders are praised as heroes and held in high esteem.
Even with the all the obvious socialistic sentiment, what am I complaining about? Isn't this, after all, a book published by the American Labour Union? If you are looking for one side of the American Labour Movement's story, this is a very comprehensive book. It offers tons (literally) of sources and footnotes and details into the lives of key individuals.
Despite being incredibly boring, Labor's Untold Story offers an extremely thorough history into how the labor movement degraded to the point where it is today.

[Kristin Dahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me two years to read this book. It’s not exactly a page turner. At the end I felt that I came away with a better understanding of people in general, but not only that a better understanding of my own country and its political history. I always felt that there were gaps in the history I was taught in public school and this book helps to fill in some of those gaps and to better understand motives. I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in learning about history that is not often covered in much detail by… anyone really.

[Jasson]

Awesome!

[Andres Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the current hostile, hopelessly reactionary political climate, I found this book to be oddly comforting. It's a reminder that not too long ago, the United States was a racial apartheid state where organizing a strike could get you beaten, imprisoned, and killed, and anyone advocating for better working conditions could be labeled a communist and consequently jailed, or worse. In the United States, ordinary people have won substantive concessions from ruling interests before, in a political moment that must have seemed even more hopeless than the one we are currently living through.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the US had a segregated workforce. Children were putting in 12 hour shifts in factories. American monopoly capital seemed all powerful, untouchable. Until it didn't. After decades of weathering the horrors of the free market, ordinary working people were able to organize and win substantive concessions from the ruling interests, like the eight-hour day, the forty-hour work week, and substantial wage increases. These concessions did not come easily; the US Army was sent to quell strikes, union leaders had to brave police batons and incarceration, and government agents shot and killed strikers. But in the end, meaningful victories were achieved.

In this moment, when American fascism has triumphed and these substantive gains are being rolled back at every turn, there's comfort in knowing that we have been here before. Workers were able to find success when they banned together to pursue their collective interests and engage in popular struggle against the power of capital. Workers have fought and bled to secure a dignified living, and we will do so again. Just as before, it will be difficult and dangerous work, but our struggle is not as hopeless as it may seem. Because the power of moneyed interests always seems impossible to overcome. Until it doesn't.

[Michael Wayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's important to know American labor history, but I suppose I will continue looking for a satisfying one. The drama of this one is pretty good in parts but there are major problems.
- There is an intense and overpowering whiteness of this account. For a history that seeks to give a voice to the unheard, this one really really fails when it comes to appreciating Black, Indigenous, and non-white immigrant forces and figures. Black people are only ever, like, a literary tool to explain the political awakening of our *real* heroes. Indigenous people are completely forgotten about, and even treated with hostility apropos the land question for poor settlers. Chinese and Latin immigrants are, again, only props to set the scene for a white hero.
- Great Man Theory. You can not have a coherent account of class politics in the United States using the individual characters of great white unionists or anarchists or socialists.
- There are some incorrect god damned conclusions too! They SAW the infidelity of the ruling classes up to and through the 1930's, but then assert that the New Deal was the ultimate victory for labor. A begrudging half-attempt by the capitalist elite to mollify the workers and eliminate class conflict. Which did completely neutralize a generation of organizers and revolutionaries.

not worth reading I reckon

[Lizzie J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only a few chapters were assigned to me for school... Those chapters weren't very good, and didn't inspire me to read the rest of the book.

[Lynx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[onysha · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 stars

I never knew anything about the post-Civil War factory/mining working life until I read selections of this book. The little I read of it was enough to show me how horrible the conditions were for the blue-collars back then. (They still are now. Factory workers in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and China get little pay. Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan still employ child labourers, who are often abused and given little food. The children are often sold into slavery by their parents, who usually cannot support them.)

Even the U.S., a democratic country with the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, multitudes lived life without adequate pay, food, water, clothing, housing and without basic rights they were entitled to. When the workers held demonstrations and rallies, the state governments and big corporation owners sent the police, thugs, vigilantes, and the military to break them up. Police brutality was always present, and hundreds and thousands of workers usually died or were injured. Union leaders were arrested, put on rigged trials, and often executed for crimes they didn't commit. All this happened in the late 19th century and went on through the first five decades of the 20th century.

What's more disappointing was that the Christians, who should have stood up for the least of these, didn't. Many pastors spoke against the unions in the pulpit based on the fact that the unions were led by socialists, who actually bothered to help. The Red Scare was more of a movement to turn the public against the labour unions rather than protect the U.S.'s democratic status.

Unfortunately, the book is super-duper dry at parts - especially the parts full of statistics (I can't absorb statistics, they always make me lost). Plus, the authors are unapologetically pro-Communist. Then there's poor, maligned Herbert Hoover, who never gets the credit he deserves. Why does almost everyone hate him so much?

Other than those things, you need to read this. Yes you do.

Edit (Jan 2025): This book definitely helped me with deconstructing the political views of evangelical Christianity and seeing them for what they were. Not sure about Hoover still, but I am also now almost unapologetically pro-Communist. Re-reading for a better understanding of the labor movement and because I'm very curious about what the people at Sonlight Curriculum thought were "unnecessary" parts of the book

[Regina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll give this book 2.5 stars. I am very glad to be finished reading it; however, it was not a waste of time. This book was a timeline of the laboring man's struggle for fairness against big business and monopoly from the century between 1860 and the time the book was written in 1955.

My territory has been enlarged by learning how benefits we take for granted now, such as the forty hour work week and a minimum wage, were bought and paid for with blood, at times. We need to know these things. Knowing that employees, including children, were once expected to work 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week for abysmal wages, should make us reconsider some of the things we whine about these days.

However, as the timeline of the book wore on closer to its authorship date, I really started to hear that axe grinding. A closer inspection of the book revealed that it was published by the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America. This explain why the last third of the book became increasingly shrill and one-sided.

And yet, reading a book that was written 60-some years ago is an invaluable history lesson in itself, setting the reader right smack down in the time period when it was written. McCarthyism, anti-atom bomb, Red Scare, cold war - all of these are presented in time machine clarity.

There was a lot to be learned in the reading of this book. It was an invaluable, if not an always enjoyable, experience.

[Dawn Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Densely packed and a slow read. The authors lean heavily left, and it's hard to read this book as though they are at all objective. However, it does contain a wealth of interesting history from the time of the Civil War through the first half of the 20 century that I've never read before, concerning the struggle of laborers at the time of the robber barons.

Finally finished. Very dense and somewhat tedious. As I said, the writers are laughably slanted and as pro-Communist as they could probably get away with for 1955. The profiles of early labor leaders read like hagiography (lives of the saints). That all sadly detracts from some very good research and documentation.

That said, this book helped me get inside the head of the progressive movement in a way no other book has done. I will say it seems that if you are a communist, everyone who isn't marching with you must look like a fascist. But I gained some important insights into the reality of the Industrial Revolution and more of the ways both Democrats and Republicans have used government to pervert justice. Despite our modern-day problems, it might not be as bad as the last 150 years.

[Nadja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly very good. Dense and hard for me to get through. Completely one-sided, which I was expecting. They have the source material to back their stories up but I have a hard time painting people with such a broad brush. It's sad to read some of the decades old statistics regarding distribution of wealth and see they've not really changed.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good propaganda piece.
Good to remember:
People fought and died for the 8 hour work day.
The Sherman anti-trust act was used, not against the trusts, but against organized labor.
The Haymaker Riots and the Chicago 7.
The death of Joe Hill.
Clarence Darrow’s defense summation lasted 10 hours in the trial of Big Bill Haywood.
Mankind shall not be crucified upon a cross of gold.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book has been the first time I have ever heard of the horrible conditions of mass labor in the first half of the twentieth century. As long as you keep in mind that this book was written by a couple of very-biased communists, and watch for little irregularities, it is fascinating.

[Jody Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written- much of it flits between exciting stories of specific struggles, perhaps with a few details filled in but based in well-cited historical facts. The authors use this to tell the broader story of the long struggle of US labor. While it at times gives a bit too much credit to FDR and other politicians, the only serious defect of this work that I see is the lack of depth in the struggle of black workers. That is a common but major defect, and makes it difficult to recommend this as an intro to US labor history. Perhaps this text combined with Organized Labor and the Black Worker (Foner) and American Negro Slave Revolts (Aptheker), could give a good broad portrait. The text ends on a hopeful note around the AFL-CIO merger, unfortunately that ideal is far from realized, as the merged federation went on to often sell out black workers, work with the CIA extensively, and never address the unorganized South or the lack of democracy in the member unions.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great popular retelling of US labor history from the civil war to the merger of the AFL and CIO told from an unapologetically working class perspective. For the casual reader looking for a broad overview of the history of the labor movement, they'll probably want something that includes more recent history, but as someone who reads a ton about labor, it was refreshing to not have to deal with the liberal "both sides" nonsense that you get in so many labor histories. This is one of the few texts that properly gives radical organizers, socialists, communists, and other militants their due for their incredible contributions to labor struggles.

If you want a single volume comprehensive labor history, you'll need something a bit more recent like Mike Davis' essential Prisoners of the American Dream, but this is really a great text.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic history of organized labor in the the US from the 1860s onward. Never fails to remind the reader that the context for these events, most of which are not included in standard history classes, is that the working class is being exploited by capitalists and that the capitalist class is unceasing in its efforts to maintain control of society using the law but not limited by it. I'm walking away with a greater appreciation of how much of the US was built by and for past workers' struggles in and out of their/our workplaces.

[Dan Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labor always a question of life and death

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imperial Fact: A necessary read for all.

[Eric Dirnbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning.

[Ronnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Later I will write a review.

[Kostas Kounouklas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent

[Cooper Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who doesn't like this book is a cop or a scab

[gabriel morales · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a 1000 page book masquerading as a 400 page book. i don't know, the font choice and the line spacing made the book feel like i was taking 20 minutes to read a page. much of the book had me drifting in and out of consciousness despite the work of the authors, who really tried their best. it has some really gripping and powerful stories of the lives of labor heroes and heroines. the parts on the molly maguires, the haymarket affair, the wobblies and the first sit-down strikes are great and i will probably go back to them.

[Caeser Pink · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as research for a documentary on labor unions. Actually it was given to me by the president of the Transit Worker's Union.

I thought it was a good read. It made history interesting. It is biased towards labor, but still fair.

Having read quite a few books on the subject, this one was quite concise while still giving a good understanding of the challenges labor faced in order for workers to have collective bargaining rights.

[Isaiah the Ox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read only select parts of this book for school, and I found the writing interesting. Some parts were written like a story, and were interesting. However, the writers would also go into a page or so of just statistics which were very boring. The authors would also mention people again, without even reminding the readers who they are. Although some could say this book is very one-sided and communistic, it is still a side of history that isn't always looked at.

[Algernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published by one of the unions that split off from the CIO, this history of the labor movement from the Civil War into the Cold War is unabashedly partial to the working class. Its prose is impassioned but its historical authenticity is not sloppy, as the authors document their case with extensive footnotes on source material.