Transitioning labor to the ‘lean years’: the middle class and employer repression of organized labor in post-World War I Chicago

Abstract

In the historiography of the American labor movement, the 1920s have long been characterized as ‘lean years’. Historians have identified many explanations for this decline, but they have not fully accounted for the role of ‘public’ or ‘middle class’ anti-labor sentiment. Opportunistic employers appealed to growing middle-class consumer discontent, set in motion by the mounting ‘high cost of living’, to build support for crippling unions during the immediate post-World War I period. Using Chicago as an example, this essay emphasizes the relationship between employers and the white-collar ‘middle class’ as an important factor in explaining the origins of the lean years.