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

This scholarly work offers a clear, fact‑based portrait of the Industrial Workers of the World during its formative years. Drawing on contemporary reports, internal charts, and the author’s own experience in labor economics, it maps how the organization grew from a handful of local disputes to a nationwide network of fourteen industrial unions and a recruiting arm that claimed roughly thirty‑five thousand members by 1919. The narrative explains the shift from parliamentary to industrial socialism, illustrating key moments such as the Spokane free‑speech fight, the Lawrence strike, and the contentious Chicago trial that accused the IWW of undermining the war effort.

The book also places the IWW in a broader international context, citing commentary from the Russian Bolshevik leader and tracing the evolution of union theory through later pamphlets and extensions of early organizational charts. Readers will come away with a nuanced understanding of early American syndicalism, its internal debates, and the legal and public challenges it faced in the post‑World‑War I era.