"Labor presented one of the most critical problems of World War II. This work proposes to study forces which brought women in large numbers into the defense production labor force. It seeks to show how the War Manpower Commission, the Women's Bureau, the Women's Advisory Committee, industry, management, labor, and other organizations approached the problem of labor and found the solution in the employment of women in defense jobs vacated by men called into military service. The work also proposes to show that in the war period women workers took a big step toward emancipating themselves from a kind of second-class status in American life. Through their efforts and performances as laborers in defense plants from 1942 to 1945, they were able not only to emancipate themselves economically, to destroy the myth that women's place was strictly in the home, but to bring about a psychological and sociological leveling through the democratization of labor"--Page ii.

"Labor presented one of the most critical problems of World War II. This work proposes to study forces which brought women in large numbers into the defense production labor force. It seeks to show how the War Manpower Commission, the Women's Bureau, the Women's Advisory Committee, industry, management, labor, and other organizations approached the problem of labor and found the solution in the employment of women in defense jobs vacated by men called into military service. The work also proposes to show that in the war period women workers took a big step toward emancipating themselves from a kind of second-class status in American life. Through their efforts and performances as laborers in defense plants from 1942 to 1945, they were able not only to emancipate themselves economically, to destroy the myth that women's place was strictly in the home, but to bring about a psychological and sociological leveling through the democratization of labor"--Page ii.

One of the oldest, strongest, and largest labor organizations in the U.S., the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had 4 million members in over 20,000 union locals during World War II. The AFL played a key role in wartime production and was a major actor in the contentious relationship between the state, organized labor, and the working class in the 1940s. The war years are pivotal in the history of American labor, but books on the AFL’s experiences are scant, with far more on the radical Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO). Andrew E. Kersten closes this gap with Labor’s Home Front, challenging us to reconsider the AFL and its influence on twentieth-century history. Kersten details the union's contributions to wartime labor relations, its opposition to the open shop movement, divided support for fair employment and equity for women and African American workers, its constant battles with the CIO, and its significant efforts to reshape American society, economics, and politics after the war. Throughout, Kersten frames his narrative with an original, central theme: that despite its conservative nature, the AFL was dramatically transformed during World War II, becoming a more powerful progressive force that pushed for liberal change.

Annotation A new edition of a classic book on how World War II changed the face of labor in the US.

A study of the bracero program during World War II. It describes the labor history of Mexican and Chicano workers in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. It analyses the ways in which Braceros were active agents of their own lives. It also describes the living and working conditions in migrant farm camps.

The United States labor movement can credit -- or blame -- policies and regulations created during World War II for its current status. Focusing on the War Labor Board's treatment of arbitration, strikes, the scope of bargaining, and the contentious issue of union security, James Atleson shows how wartime necessities and language have carried over into a very different post-war world, affecting not only relations between unions and management but those between rank and file union members and their leaders.