The I. W. W.: A Study of American Syndicalism

The I.W.W. was the most radical labor organization America has ever seen, and Paul F. Brissenden's 1919 study remains the definitive account of their revolution. Writing while the events were still fresh, Brissenden traces the Industrial Workers of the World from their 1905 founding through the explosive Lawrence and Paterson strikes that made them a household name, examining their audacious philosophy of industrial unionism that rejected capitalism entirely in favor of worker ownership of the means of production. The book dissects the I.W.W.'s embrace of direct action, general strikes, and what contemporaries called sabotage, situating this militant synthesis of syndicalist thought within the broader failure of mainstream American unions to challenge systemic inequality. Brissenden also charts the organization's bitter conflicts with both capital and conservative labor, their persecution under the Espionage Act during WWI, and the enduring questions their existence raised about whether meaningful reform could ever emerge from American capitalism. For anyone seeking to understand the passionate, violent, and ultimately tragic history of American labor's left wing, this volume remains indispensable.