American Labor and United States Foreign Policy Hardcover - 1969

New York: Random House, 1969. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good. 22 cm. x, [2], 463,[3] pages. Footnotes. Index. Boards somewhat worn and soiled, slightly shaken, minor soiling to edges and endpapers. Ronald Radosh (born 1937) is an American writer, professor, historian and former Marxist. As described in his memoirs, Radosh was a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America until the Khrushchev thaw. Subsequently, he became a New Left and anti-Vietnam War activist. Later, Radosh turned his attention to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Radosh concluded that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were indeed guilty of spying for the KGB. Radosh's decision to publish his findings led to his social ostracism. Radosh's political views eventually began to shift towards conservatism and his work as a historian has been characterized as being of a conservative variety. Currently employed by the Hudson Institute, Radosh has also published books about the activities of Joseph Stalin's NKVD during the Spanish Civil War and the foundation of the State of Israel. Derived from a Kirkus review: This heavily factual but quite interesting history details how organized labor has cooperated with the federal government in this century to promote foreign policies which are expansionist, anti-foreign labor, staunchly anti-Communist in the Cold War, and anti-reform in Latin America. Radosh demonstrates how the leaders of the union movement "accepted the existing corporate political economy, in return for a minor share in the decision making process and increasing economic rewards for union members," thus developing organized labor into "an institution that functioned to integrate workers into the existing political economy, rather than as a lever for changing it." Gompers during World War I, John Spargo in the 1920's, and Jay Lovestone in the aftermath of World War II helped align American labor with capitalist interests devoted to expanding American markets and conservative politicians committed to squashing socialist and radical influences on the national and international scene.