Infighting in the UAW: The 1946 Election and the Ascendancy of Walter Reuther

(Hardback)

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Description

Usually the defeat of one union official by another would not occasion great interest by historians. The highly charged atmosphere after World War II and at the beginning of the cold war however led to a strongly disputed election which left Walter Reuther the new president of the UAW. The opinions as to why Reuther unseated the incumbents are many and varied. Dr. Goode goes into these in depth in his interesting and well documented work dealing with this watershed event in American Unionism. The research for the work has been done with the aid of union archives, published material, and oral history from some of the participants in the event.

Reviews

Goode writes this absorbing history from the perspective of a participant and a scholar. This tale of factional infighting draws upon such an impressive array of research and personal experiences that Goode is able to lend to his topic an immediacy and intimacy not often seen in historical research. No doubt this carefully crafted and well-argued book will be controversial; it belongs in every labor history collection.-Choice
"Goode writes this absorbing history from the perspective of a participant and a scholar. This tale of factional infighting draws upon such an impressive array of research and personal experiences that Goode is able to lend to his topic an immediacy and intimacy not often seen in historical research. No doubt this carefully crafted and well-argued book will be controversial; it belongs in every labor history collection."-Choice

Author Bio

BILL GOODE is retired from Empire State College, where he was an Associate Professor of Labor Studies and former Dean of the Center for Labor Studies. He has been the Director of Educational Activities for UAW, the Director of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Labor Institute, and has been associated with other labor and civil rights groups.