Grand Master Workman - Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor

The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was the most ambitious and significant labor organization of the Gilded Age. As the charismatic leader of this group, Terence Powderly was America's first nationally known labor leader, the first to achieve a high degree of recognition from working people, industrialists, and politicians across the continent. To most Americans, Powderly was the Knights of Labor. Based on an exhaustive examination of Powderly's voluminous correspondence, this book offers a critical analysis of Powderly's efforts to oversee the most spectacular experiment in class-wide solidarity ever undertaken.

Phelan paints a sympathetic and probing portrait of a complex figure caught up in the whirlwind of local and national events. He details the challenges and pressures of labor leadership at a time when industrialization was convulsing the nation, and when the labor movement was struggling to build a viable national institution capable of creating a more egalitarian society. The national focus of this study helps to synthesize the numerous community studies written on the Knights in recent years and offers fresh perspectives on the ultimate meaning of the organization. It is the first detailed examination of the Knights' leadership since the Powderly and Hayes Papers have become available.

List of contents

Introduction
A Child of Industrial America: January 1849-September 1879
Building a National Movement: September 1879-September 1881
Growth and Its Discontents: September 1881-September 1883
A Multiplicity of Goals: September 1883-September 1885
The Great Upheaval: September 1885-September 1888
Failure of a Dream: September 1888-June 1924
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

About the author

CRAIG PHELAN is Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea. His other works include Divided Loyalties: the Public and Private Life of Labor Leader John Mitchell (1994) and William Green: Biography of a Labor Leader (1989).

Product details

• Authors: Craig Phelan, Phelan Craig
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.01.2000
• EAN: 9780313309489
• ISBN: 978-0-313-30948-9
• No. of pages: 304
• Weight: 567 g
• Series: Contributions in Labor Studies
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > History; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, American History, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Economic history, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Trade Unions, United States of America, USA, c 1938 to c 1946 (World War Two period), History of the Americas, c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Labor / Unions