THE POLITICS OF LABOR LEGISLATION

The congressional elections of 1958 constituted a resounding victory for organized labor. Or did they? How on earth could this ""labor-bossed Congress"", as Postmaster General Summerfield termed it, turn right around in '59 and slap its ""boss"" with the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, popularly--or rather, unpopularly--known as the Landrum-Griffin Act? It is certainly a political whodunit of the first order, and that is exactly the way in which Mr. McAdams has told it. Beginning with the elections themselves, then an examination of the state of unionism at the time, and the national party positions, he skillfully sketches in the main plot before moving to the real scene of action: the Senate, where the McClellan Committee has been capturing the limelight, while at least four would-be Democratic presidents are hovering hopefully in the wings, and other strange goings-on are assuredly but quietly in the works. This is a fascinating as well as important book, which does great service to the proposition that solid, thorough scholarship need not be dull.