TOIL AND TROUBLE

Toil and Trouble is a history of the American labor movement. Brooks begins his study with the conditions of work in the colonies and concludes with the problems of automation. His history is a general one, drawing on more scholarly approaches to trace the early organization of workers, the founding of the Knights of Labor, the A F of L, the IWW and the labor strife which narked the early decades of this century. He follows the development of labor's strength through two world wars to the ?erger of the A F of L and the CIO. He deals with the current problem of discrimination in the AFL and with the challenge which the growth of white collar employment presents. His attitude, by and large, seems as optimistic as his overall detachment permits. He feels, as others have previously pointed out, that collective bargaining as no longer an effective instrument for achieving labor's goals and that there will have to be a new emphasis on political activity and lobbying to offset the inroads of automation. Toil and Trouble is a clearly written, helpful book for the general reader but it does not have the depth to be of value as a source in itself.