Workers and Utopia; A Study of Ideological Conflict in the American Labor Movement 1865-1900

Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1961. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good. xi, [1], 220 pages. Footnotes. Bibliographical Essay. Index. Cover has minor wear and soiling. This is Number II of the Northwestern University Studies in History. Gerald N. Grob was a noted historian. He received his undergraduate degree at the City College of New York in 1951, an AM at Columbia University in 1952, and after a tour in the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1955-57, he completed his Ph.D. at Northwestern University in 1958. His writing and research gained him a local, national, and international reputation. He published works in American labor history (including Workers and Utopia, 1969). He also edited books on American intellectual history and US foreign policy. The American Association for the History of Medicine, of which he served as president in 1996-98, honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 after presenting him with the William H. Welch Medal in 1986 and naming him a Fielding Garrison Lecturer that same year. The purpose of this study was neither to justify nor condemn the American labor movement. The author has attempted to assess from a historical point of view the development of the ideology of organized labor as an integral part of American society and culture. For American unionism was more than simply an economic movement. Like other institutions, it tended to reflect the dominant standards and values of American culture. One of the author's basic assumptions was that unions were simply a microcosm of a larger whole, and he has tried to show why American union is developed in its own peculiar manner. Functioning in a materialistic, acquisitive, and abundant environment American unions derived their goals and orientation from society at large.