TY - BOOK AU - Mink,Gwendolyn TI - Old Labor and New Immigrants in American Political Development: Union, Party, and State, 1875-1920 SN - 9781501742699 AV - HD6508 U1 - 322.20973 19 PY - 2019///] CY - Ithaca, NY : PB - Cornell University Press, KW - Labor unions KW - Political activity KW - United States KW - Labor History KW - U.S. History KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations KW - bisacsh N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; Part I. The Political Side of American Trade Unionism: Immigration, Organization, and THE Nationalization of Labor Politics --; Part II. The Union-Party Tie --; Part III. The AFL and the Rise of the Democratic State --; Afterword. Back to the Future --; Selected Bibliography --; Index; restricted access N2 - Why have American politics developed differently from politics in Europe? Generations of scholars and commentators have wondered why organized labor in the United States did not acquire a broad-based constituency or form an autonomous labor party. In this innovative and insightful book, Gwendolyn Mink finds new answers by approaching this question from a different angle: she asks what determined union labor's political interests and how those interests influenced the political role forged by the American Federation of Labor. At bottom, Mink argues, the demographic dynamics of industrialization produced a profound racial response to economic change among organized labor. This response shaped the AFL's political strategy and political choices.In her account of the unique role played by labor in politics prior to the New Deal, Mink focuses on the ways in which the organizational and political interests of the AFL were mediated by the national issue of immigration and links the AFL's response to immigration to its conservative stance in and toward politics. She investigates the political impact of a labor market split between union and nonunion, old and new immigrant workers; of dramatic demographic change; and of nativism and racism. Mink then elucidates the development of trade-union political interests, ideology, and strategy; the movement of the AFL into established state and party structures; and the consequent separation of the AFL from labor's social base UR - https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501742699 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501742699 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501742699/original ER -