The Wobblies: The Story of the IWW and Syndicalism in the United States

by Patrick Renshaw

Book Overview

In this new edition of his classic study of the Industrial Workers of the World, Mr. Renshaw tells the story of how they planned to combine the American working class, and eventually wage earners all over the world, into one big labor union with an industrial basis, a syndicalist philosophy, and a revolutionary aim. "A sensible and penetrating examination....Topical even today."-Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566632730
• ISBN13: 9781566632737
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Sound familiar 100 years later?

A well documented book, that is slow going at the start,but gives adecent report on the IWW. I think the author was a little weak on the genesis of the union, but he gives a good feeling for the times in the blow-by-blow actions by and against the IWW. The book was written in the late 1960's, but really has a conservative edge more like you'd read about the 1950's. A good primer on the IWW--it got me interested in finding out more!

The definitive book on the Wobblies

A great book for readers interested in labor, social, and radical history. This book is excellent in revealing the clash between socialists, anarchists, communists, and industrial unionists. The IWW was the home of American radicals from 1905-1930. From Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party of America & the American Railway Union to Daniel DeLeon of the Socialist Labor Party & the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, from John Reed of the Communist Labor Party to William Z. Foster of the Communist Party of America, from Big Bill Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners to Lucy Parsons - widow of Albert (Haymarket Square Martyr), from Mother Jones to Victor Berger, and notable sympathizers such as Hellen Keller and Margaret Sanger. Check out this great book on revolutionary unionism today.