Power at odds

During the tumultuous era of World War I and the years immediately following, the leadership of the United States had shifted from Wilson to Harding and the mood of the nation from pro-labor to pro-business. Colin Davis introduces readers to the 400,000 railroad shopmen and their working world and to the national government's dynamic influence on labor from 1917 to 1922.

Davis's study provides a much-needed synthesis of shifting power relations among labor, capital, and the state, as well as a cogent interpretation of union structural experimentation and failure. It will be of interest to social, political, business, legal, and labor historians.