Turbulent years

by Irving Bernstein

The second volume of Irving Bernstein's History of the American Worker is concerned with the struggle of labor under the New Deal, 1933-1941. In these years, labor recovered from the early days of the Great Depression and became a dominant force in American politics and society. We see the effect of Franklin Roosevelt's election--and the influence of labor in assuring it; the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act and its subsequent defeat in the Supreme Court; the rising power of unions and their invasion of new industrial fields, leading to discontent within the A F of L and ultimately to the formation of the CIO. Labor's new weapon, the sit-down strike, is described vividly along with the government's puzzled reaction. The Wagner Act--"labor's charter of liberty"--is traced through its passage and operation. Finally we see the split between Roosevelt and John L. Lewis, leading to Lewis' support of Willkie in the 1940 election. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, American labor