Why has labor played a more limited role in national politics in the United States than it has in other advanced industrial societies? Victoria Hattam demonstrates that voluntarism, as American labor's policy was known, was the American Federation of Labor's strategic response to the structure...

"Forming and defending unions in the United States has always been a Herculean task. Employers have a long history of fighting vigorously to bust strikes and prevent workers from organizing- and, ultimately to dis-organize unions. The government, including politicians, local officials, and the...