If you can get it, read the unabridged version published in about 1914. It is ridiculously long and long winded with details of internicine warfare among labor that is as boring then as it is now. And yet, the descriptions of the lower east side of NYC in the 1870-s and 1880's are fascinating with a hodge podge of nationalities, Germans, Jews, Irish, Italians, Russians who have brought with them a yearning for social justice but antagonisms whether the pathway is through violence, see the anachi
If you can get it, read the unabridged version published in about 1914. It is ridiculously long and long winded with details of internicine warfare among labor that is as boring then as it is now. And yet, the descriptions of the lower east side of NYC in the 1870-s and 1880's are fascinating with a hodge podge of nationalities, Germans, Jews, Irish, Italians, Russians who have brought with them a yearning for social justice but antagonisms whether the pathway is through violence, see the anachists and marxists, or gradualism, see socialists and the AFL. Collective bargaining was in its infancy. The whole idea of collective bargaining agreements with no-strike clauses was a serious issue debated at that time. Some would say the Gompers ushered in a conservative labor movement but I can't see that the immediate choices were all that better. This is not a book that you would want to read cover to cover but to dip in and move about, it is well worth it. The descriptions of the lower east side are worth the trouble of getting the book.
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