| Sumario: | "This first book-length history of the AFT provides a comprehensive view of events which have shaped teacher activism and of issues which have defined the AFT’s role in teacher unionism. From its turbulent beginnings in 1916 in Chicago, where the seeds of the movement took root, to the 1961 teacher strike in New York City, which proved the union’s effectiveness, the American Federation of Teachers union has provided a simulacrum of industrial organizational patterns common to the labor movement in this country. Deriving its principal strength from such modes, the AFT was crisis oriented from the start, and is thus distinguished from its rival union the NEA, a more conservative, profession-oriented group. From original, unpublished sources, including the AFT’s files, and from personal interviews, William E. Eaton has made an original, and significant, contribution to our understanding of current problems in education. As a new kind of revolution seems to be changing the fabric of our school system, this is an important book for our time."
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