"Labor scholar and activist Steve Babson's narrative examines the numerous attempts to organize workers from the Great Uprising of 1877 to the "sitdown" strikes of the 1930s to the present day. Babson illuminates the tumultuous past, evolving agenda, and continuing conflicts of the labor movement. He identifies the causes of labor's decline in recent decades and explains union leaders' attempts to revive their organizations. Most important, Babson shows readers how the fortunes of organized labor are tied to larger trends in American history."--BOOK JACKET.