Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This book catalogs in great detail the various labor-related alphabet governmental agencies of WWI, especially the WLB, and their interventions in some of the major labor disputes of WWI. Obviously much research has gone into detailing names of key players and the sequence of events. But this book is supposed to be about industrial democracy. While it is stressed that the term "industrial democracy" came to the fore during this period, there is limited coverage of why this is so and the nature of any industrial democracy that may have been established. No where in the book is there a detailed look at how industrial democracy worked in an actual place of work. Many obvious questions are left unanswered. How widespread was any such industrial democracy? How did the typical worker or the media react to the concept? How did shop committees and trade unions interact? Also, it is unclear as to what the author's claims are regarding industrial democracy's lasting effects. He clearly shows that employers dominated the ERP's of post-WWI. The New Deal intervention in labor affairs was clearly not one of instituting democracy. McCartin does indicate that labor relations of the current period seem to have come almost full circle to some form of 19th century thinking. Basically, McCartin's book seems to indicate that "industrial democracy," whatever that was, was not much more than a blip on the screen of labor history. His book needed to focus far more on just what industrial democracy is and its difficulties and transience in real working peoples lives as well as an institution. The role of the AFL in stifling industrial democracy is given insufficient weight.
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