Tamiment Library Book Talk
The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement
by Robert Parmet [New York University Press, 2005]
WHEN
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 – 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
WHERE
Tamiment Library - Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Bobst Library, New York University
70 Washington Square South - 10th Floor
CO-SPONSORS
New York Labor History Association
United Hebrew Trades - New York Jewish Labor Committee
MORE INFORMATION
Michael Nash - [log in to unmask] - 212-998-2428
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The Master of Seventh Avenue is the definitive biography of David Dubinsky (1892–1982), one of the most controversial and influential labor leaders in 20th-century America. A "character" in the truest sense of the word, Dubinsky was both revered and reviled, but never dull, conformist, or bound by convention. A Jewish labor radical, Dubinsky fled czarist Poland in 1910 and began his career as a garment worker and union agitator in New York City. He quickly rose through the ranks of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) and became its president in 1932. Dubinsky led the ILGWU for thirty-four years, where he championed "social unionism," which offered workers benefits ranging from health care to housing. Moving beyond the realm of the ILGWU, Dubinsky also played a leading role in the American Federation of Labor (AFL), particularly during World War II. A staunch anti-communist, Dubinsky worked tirelessly to rid the American labor movement of communists and
fellow-travelers.
Robert D. Parmet also chronicles Dubinsky's influential role in local, national, and international politics. An extraordinary personality whose life and times present a fascinating lens into the American labor movement, Dubinsky leaps off the pages of this meticulously researched and vividly detailed biography.
Robert D. Parmet, professor of history at York College of The City University of New York, is the author of Labor and Immigration in Industrial America and co-author of American Nativism, 1830–1860.