Program

Research Programs: Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars

Period of Performance

7/1/2005 - 6/30/2006

Funding Totals

$40,000.00 (approved)
$40,000.00 (awarded)


Westbrook Pegler, Anti-Unionism, and the Conservative Response to the New Deal

FAIN: FB-51793-05

David Scott Witwer
Lycoming College (Williamsport, PA 17701-5100)

This book will trace the impact of a union corruption scandal exposed by the prominent columnist Westbrook Pegler in 1939 and 1940. It will study the ways in which Pegler and his publisher, Roy Howard, drew on this scandal to build an influential critique of the growing power of organized labor and of the New Deal. Following Pegler’s lead, conservatives used the problem of union corruption to raise concerns about the growth of government and the threat it posed to individual rights. Finally, the book will consider the efforts by the leaders of organized labor to respond to this scandal. The frustrations they encountered help to explain labor’s political decline in the post-WWII years.





Associated Products

Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor (Book)
Title: Shadow of the Racketeer: Scandal in Organized Labor
Author: Witwer, David Scott
Year: 2009
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=9780252076664
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry
Publisher: Urbana: University of Illinois Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780252076664