Introduction

The introduction lays out the main themes of the book and outlines its structure. The introduction begins by noting that the 1902 report of the United States Industrial Commission praised labor unions as harbingers of more orderly, rational, and democratic labor relations and asks why this emphasis on greater democracy at work did not take hold more broadly despite its popularity then and since. This chapter introduces the major organizational players—the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Civic Federation, the American Federation of Labor—that appear in this book and briefly situates the book in the relevant historiography.