Whether or not it was a good war, the Second World War saw more strikes than at any other time in the history of the American labor movement. In this groundbreaking history from below, Glaberman not only recounts and analyses some of that forgotten story, but tells the stories of the Rank and File Caucus and working class consciousness in the light of such experiences.
"Through the use of government investigations of wartime strikes, the recollections of many union activists, union proceedings, and the press of the epoch, he has recreated both the nature of shop floor controversies and group loyalties which produced the strikes and the political history of the conflict within the union over the continuation of the pledge. His insights are greatly augmented by his own personal experience... His assessment of the various political groups involved is remarkably objective and even self-critical for a participant." —David Montgomery