The state and the unions: labor relations, law, and the organized labor movement in America, 1880–1960, by Christopher L. Tomlins, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0 521 25840 5
The bulk of this issue of Labor History is devoted to an in-depth symposium on one of the most influential books ever written on the American labor movement, Christopher Tomlins' The State and the Unions. Since its publication in 1985, this book has received enormous attention from historians, legal scholars, and activists alike, and it is still cited often by those trying to identify precisely what is wrong with the labor movement today. In this book, which is a mixture of in-depth historical research, critical legal studies' perspectives and sheer boldness of argument, Tomlins examines the long-term impact of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act on the fortunes of the American labor movement, arguing that the very law that protects trade unions is a major cause of its current malaise. Special thanks for this symposium go to Jean-Christian Vinel, who organized it.