Customer Reviews

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

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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.

The definitive work on the IWW has yet to have been written. If you have no real knowledge of the IWW's history, this is the best available commercial overview. This isn't to say there are many flaws in it, there are. But it does mention the IWW as an international movement. It acknowledges the IWW was a going concern in the 20s and 30s and that it continues to exist today.

If you want an even better history, search out "The IWW: it's first 50 years" by Fred Thompson. It is tragically out of print, but is available in many libraries. This an official history of the IWW, but is a acknowledged labor classic for its honesty and even handedness. Its only weakness is its brevity because the IWW was too poor to print a larger volume.

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!