LABOR LOBBYIST: The Autobiography of John W. Edelman

by John W. Edelman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 3, 1973

Not an attempt at straight history but rather a gently rambling memoir by a late lobbyist who during a lifetime in the labor movement was involved with just about everybody of political importance -- first as an early organizer for the CIO, then labor adviser to the NRA during the New Deal and to the Labor Office of the OPA during World War II, and from 1943 until retirement (becoming president of the National Council of Senior Citizens) as the Textile Workers Union legislative agent in Washington. The son of immigrant anarchists, Edelman was born in 1893 in New Jersey, raised in England in a tradition of public causes -- at thirteen he was a member of the Socialist Independent Labour Party -- returned to the United States at the age of 23 and, although his politics became decidedly more conservative over his lifetime, his humanism never diminished. A valentine to the labor movement but missing is a sense of the drama of the times, that excitement of being at the main event.

Pub Date: Dec. 3, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION