The Bosses’ Union, which was published by the University of Illinois Press in January 2023, tells the story of how employers in the early twentieth century built organizations to counter the rise of labor unions, and in the process crafted an ideology and language that still resonates in debates over the legitimacy of labor union demands.

The book was a finalist for the Hagley Prize in Business History.

Thanks to a TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) grant sponsored by the CU Boulder Libraries, you can download the book for free (click on “Supplemental links”).

Reviews and blurbs

[blurb] “With keen analysis and vivid prose, Vilja Hulden brilliantly illuminates how U.S. employers fought furiously to undermine unions and blunt demands for workplace democracy in the early twentieth century, creating a warped legacy that still haunts our labor relations and diminishes our politics. This powerfully argued book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the long historical roots of today’s reawakened fights for worker justice.”
–Joseph A. McCartin, author of Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America

[review in American Historical Review] “The Bosses’ Union, a gripping and important work by Vilja Hulden, eloquently examines [the] longer history [of anti-unionism] … [T]here are many rich insights in The Bosses’ Union that together should reshape our understanding of the Progressive Era … Hulden has written a terrific book that all scholars and students of US labor and economic history should read.”
–Julie Greene

[review in The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era] “Hulden’s research is impressive. … The Bosses’ Union should occupy an important role in the larger field of American labor history. Moreover, Hulden writes clearly and cleanly and in a style that is both extremely readable and occasionally literary.”
–Daniel Opler

[review in British Journal of Industrial Relations] “Hulden makes a compelling case … As the author’s first book, this marks an impressive debut, in terms of the choice of theme and its treatment.”
–Deepa Kylasam Iyer

[review in Labor: Studies in Working-Class History] “[E]xtraordinarily well-researched and informative … highly textured and detailed … provides excellent context for understanding employers’ strategies to uphold the “open shop. … There is plenty that one may quibble with in this book, which is only to be expected in any thoughtful, ambitious work. But one leaves thoroughly impressed by its high level of historical research and argumentation.”
–Jennifer Delton

[review in Journal of American History] “Beginning with its title, the book is a reminder to historians that employer opposition to greater union influence was organized. It was not simply a response to labor conflicts or union organization campaigns. If we are to comprehend the nature of labor struggles in the United States, we must consider these multifaceted organizations which were a strong, well-funded, and publicly influential force that played and continues to play a powerful role in shaping labor relations in the United States.”
–Paul Mishler

image: Cover for Bosses’ Union (design by Brock Book Design Co.). Images used: Diego M. Rivera, Detail from Detroit Industry, 1932–1933, fresco (Detroit Institute of Arts, photo of detail, Alamy); Employees of the American Brass Company assembled outside the Kenosha plant, circa 1913 (Kenosha County Historical Society).