Gerald Friedman

Book Review: History: From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social QuestionFrom Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question. By CastelRobert; translated and edited by BoydRichard. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 2003. xxvii, 468 pp. ISBN 0-76580-1493,

order to create an atmosphere in which the union idea might fully re-emerge. This is an important, timely book whose focus on ideas and ideology offers a fresh perspective that is sure to generate useful debate over labors historical choices and current status. At times, however, Lichtenstein gives too much weight to ideological influences in explaining the erosion of working-class solidarity, an integral element in his conception of the union idea. For example, it was not industrial pluralists or the courts that prompted workers to think of themselves as homeowners, taxpayers, and consumers rather than as industrial citi-

49.95 (cloth).

This is an historical examination of the debate in the USA over labour relations and the resulting expansion of the government agencies that provided the basis for the system. In the final months of the US Commission on Industrial Relations in 1915, economist John R. Commons sent a memorandum recommending the creation of a permanent council for administering labour relations. Commons felt that, after years of labour unrest, the USA teetered on the brink of a civil war regarding labour relations, and that the gravity of the situation warranted its priority over banking, trusts and railroads. He urged that the USA expand its administrative government along European lines and apply administrative law to American labour relations. The author argues that the public organizations involved in the formation of labour relations policy functioned to stabilize industrial relations within the emerging corporate capitalist system - although often at the expense of important business interests. This study also examines the activities of two other social scientists, E. Dana Durand and Jeremiah W. Jenks, in addition to Commons. Each made significant contributions in the national discussion of labour relations during the Progressive Era, a critical time in American industrial growth.