Julie Greene, Pure and Simple Politics: The American Federation of Labor and Political Activism, 1881–1917. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. xi + 293 pp.

Extract

They were right! Samuel Gompers really did deserve the rancor that Progressives, Socialists, and proponents of a labor party heaped upon him for more than three decades. Throughout the critical formative period of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), he stamped his own personal vision upon, and placed his own personal interests ahead of the interests of the American working-class. Furthermore, after reading Julie Greene's thorough debunking of the AFL's political strategies, it will be increasingly difficult to argue that Gompers even advanced the interests of that narrow band of white, male trade unionists with much success. What happened to the immigrant trade unionist who showed such a remarkable understanding of the problems confronting the working-class when he testified before Congress in 1883?