Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1976. 312 pp. The print run is 1,700. Price 1 rub. 38 kopecks. The book by S. M. Askoldova, a senior researcher at the Institute of General History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Candidate of Historical Sciences, is one of the few studies of specific key problems of the history of the labor movement in the United States. Political and scientific relevance of the topic chosen by the author is not necessary- page 166 It is necessary to add an additional argument: the poison of Gompersiism still poisons the consciousness of some American workers, weakens the trade union movement, and hinders the unity of the forces of the working class and all the detachments of the anti-monopoly democratic movement. Exposing the views and policies of the trade union elite is impossible without a deep analysis of their roots, origin and evolution. The main part of the reviewed monograph is devoted to these issues. The author has chosen, in general, a successful and interesting approach to the disclosure of the topic, linking the presentation of the main problems with the coverage of their development at the stages of the labor movement in the United States, combining the consideration of issues of ideology with showing the general trends of the class struggle in the country. It is a pity that S. M. Askoldova was not able to clearly distinguish and characterize the periods of the working-class movement everywhere. This, in particular, applies to the years 1912-1918. The book summarizes the development of capitalism and the labor movement in the United States in the second half of the 19th century and analyzes the process of forming the trade union ideology on the basis of numerous facts. The objective conditions and causes that led to the emergence and strengthening of gompersiism in the labor movement are revealed, the specifics of the spiritual world of the working class in the United States at the turn of two centuries are described, and the "constra ... Read more