Divided loyalties
Subtitle: the public and private life of labor leader John Mitchell
By: Craig Phelan.
Series: SUNY series in American labor history
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Albany, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 438
Subjects: Mitchell, John, 1870-1919.; United Mine Workers of America -- Biography.; Labor leaders -- United States -- Biography.; Coal miners -- Labor unions -- United States -- History.; Anthracite coal industry -- United States -- History.; Arbitration, Industrial -- United States -- History.
Description: John Mitchell was a contradictory figure, representing the best and worst labor leadership had to offer at the turn of the century. Articulate, intelligent, and a skillful negotiator, Mitchell made effective use of the press and political opportunities as well as the muscle of his union. He was also manipulative, calculating, tremendously ambitious, and prone to place more trust in the business community than in his own rank and file.

Phelan relates Mitchell's life to many issues currently being debated by labor historians, such as organized labor's search for respectability, its development of a large bureaucracy, its ambiguous relationship to the state, and its suppression of worker input. In addition, he shows how Mitchell's life illuminates broad economic and political developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [361]-431) and index.