Introduction

Abstract

Nearly eighty years have passed since John R. Commons and his associates at the University of Wisconsin gathered and published the first multivolume collection of documents concerning the social history of American industrial society. As might be expected, their eleven-volume compilation, entitled A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, devoted several volumes to the subjects of workers, labor movements, and labor politics. For decades it provided a starting point for students of the history of American workers and their organizations. Today, there is no documentary collection in print that aspires to provide even an introductory survey-level exposure to U.S. labor history.