New Immigrants and the Radicalization of American Labor, 1914–1924

Millions of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe were by 1914 doing the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs in America’s mines, mills and factories. The next decade saw major economic and demographic changes and the growing influence of radicalism over immigrant populations. From the bottom rungs of the industrial hierarchy, immigrants pushed forward the greatest wave of strikes in U.S. labor history—lasting from 1916 until 1922—while nurturing new forms of labor radicalism. In response, government and industry, supported by deputized nationalist organizations, launched a campaign of “100 percent Americanism.” Together they developed new labor and immigration policies that led to the 1924 National Origins Act, which brought to an end mass European immigration. American industrial society would be forever changed.

Thomas Mackaman is an assistant professor of history at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He specializes in late Progressive Era American history, especially labor and immigration.

Thomas Mackaman

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 220
Bibliographic Info: 7 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6249-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2468-6
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Abbreviations 3
Introduction: “Got a match?” 5
1. “Our lives, our thoughts and our allegiance”: New Immigrants in 1914 23
2. “A war of coal and iron”: 1914–1917 59
3. Securing “the industrial forts of America”: 1917–1918 87
4. “The Revolt of the ­Rank and File”: 1919 115
5. Reaction in New Country and Old: 1920–1924 142
Epilogue: The ­Nation-State, Immigration Restriction and Fordism 169
Chapter Notes 175
Bibliography 199
Index 209