author
James Boyd Kennedy
b. 1870
Best known for a closely researched 1908 study of American trade unions, this early twentieth-century writer approached labor history with a careful, documentary style. His work grew out of graduate research and still appeals to readers interested in the development of worker benefits and mutual aid.
1 Audiobook
Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions
by James Boyd Kennedy
About the author
James Boyd Kennedy was an American writer and researcher born in 1870. The most clearly documented work linked to him is Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions (1908), a study published by Johns Hopkins Press and later preserved by projects including Project Gutenberg.
The book itself explains that it grew out of investigations connected with the Economic Seminary at Johns Hopkins University and that Kennedy completed it while he was a graduate student there. In it, he examined how American trade unions built systems for sickness, disability, death, and other member benefits, giving his work a practical and historical focus.
Reliable biographical detail beyond that is limited in the sources I could confirm here, so it is safest to remember him chiefly through this contribution: a concise, serious study of labor organization at a moment when unions were expanding their role in American working life.