Union Made

May 1, 2019
A biography of Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor. A Jewish immigrant, Gompers had learned cigar-making in his London home and continued to work at this trade as an adult in the U.S. His interest in unions sprang from his experiences with fraternal organizations and his growing convictions that "the only way to improve working conditions was peacefully within the capitalist system." In 1881, Gompers helped found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (later reorganized into the AFL), which promoted the eight-hour day, limitations on child and convict labor, cash payments for salaries, and strict immigration laws, a policy that Gompers strongly believed in and the irony of which receives scant comment from Finkelstein. In this fact-filled but interpretation-light account, Sam Gompers was a workaholic and a person who loved public speaking. Readers get little sense of Gompers as a person, and they may struggle with his dismissive attitude toward unskilled workers, his realpolitik approach to race, and his hypocrisy toward immigrants. There is excellent research here, but the lackluster writing, the double-column format, and the hazy quality of some of the black-and-white archival photos produce an unexciting volume; some gaps in the index further limit its use. This comprehensive but pedestrian biography will be fairly useful for school reports but is unlikely to inspire 21st-century labor activists. (author's note, timeline, source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 11-14)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2019
Grades 7-10 Samuel Gompers came to America as a Jewish immigrant in search of a better life. Various hardships, including the unfair working conditions of his first job, made him quite outspoken, and his experience as the leader of a local cigar union led to him founding what would become the American Federation of Labor and creating federal protections for US workers. Finkelstein presents Gompers as a national hero, but the ugly racial history of the AFL is mentioned as well. While Gompers encouraged unions to work alongside African Americans, he never held those groups accountable. His legacy is further tainted by intolerant and racist action towards certain immigrant populations?most notably through his support of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Back matter includes a time line, source notes, bibliographies, and an index. This is a thorough biography, and the well-researched narrative is laid out in double columns of text, occasionally broken up by black-and-white photos and illustrations, all of which documents how instrumental Gompers was to unionizing citizens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)