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The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland
The epic clash between International Harvester and the radical Farm Equipment Workers is vividly conveyed in this richly detailed history of the bitter, deep-rooted grudge match between an industrial behemoth and a militant organized workers’ movement. The Long Deep Grudge makes clear that class conflict has been, and remains, integral to the American experience by illuminating perspectives from both sides of the battle lines during a critical labor battle that began late-1800’s Kentucky and continues today.
This evocative narrative centers on the bitter twentieth-century enmity between the Farm Equipment Workers (FE), once one of America’s most radical unions, and International Harvester, which long reigned as one of the world’s supremely powerful industrial empires.
This detailed historical account, stretching back to the nineteenth century and carried through to the present, reads like a novel. Biographical sketches of McCormick family members, union officials and rank-and-filers are weaved into the narrative, along with anarchists, anti-communists, jazz musicians, Wall Street financiers, civil rights crusaders, and mob lawyers.
Both Harvester and the FE are now gone, but this largely forgotten clash provides context for the not only the recent decline of the labor movement but the crisis of yawning inequality facing Americans today.
451 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2020
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771 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 22, 2025
This was SO GOOD. Gilpin takes this story of a radical union and makes a case that politics is not a process that doesn't matter to the shop floor, but that in fact radical politics--Communism, even--can have deep influence on shop politics, and that cementing solidarity across racial lines is possible through keeping an antagonistic relationship with management at the forefront. And she does so in a way that keeps the story rooted with people, and not with organization alphabet soup (which, I acknowledge, is necessary for some parts of labor history, but is definitely a challenge for folks new to the field.)
It's so carefully done and just really revs me up and makes me excited for the possibilities of radical politics in unionizing and what is possible--it gives an image of the world outside of a UAW style of long contracts that management chips away at over time, and is so powerful to see the FE workers support one another's grievances again and again and again. Just so good, definitely check it out.
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Reread April 2021: Just as good if not better the second time! Gilpin just tells the story of the union so well and with so much care and attention to detail without losing the larger story. Absolutely still five stars; I bought a copy so I could annotate it and distribute it among friends, that's how much I loved it the first time and still love it. It really has shaped the way I understand union contracts, and I think it's just such a good introduction to good labor history. If you can get a hold of it, please check it out. It's just so good and a story told so well.
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Reread February 2025: My favorite labor history book of all time at this point. I’m personally responsible for the sale of many copies and it’s because I genuinely believe the book is that good. It’s a book that has changed my life.
It's so carefully done and just really revs me up and makes me excited for the possibilities of radical politics in unionizing and what is possible--it gives an image of the world outside of a UAW style of long contracts that management chips away at over time, and is so powerful to see the FE workers support one another's grievances again and again and again. Just so good, definitely check it out.
--
Reread April 2021: Just as good if not better the second time! Gilpin just tells the story of the union so well and with so much care and attention to detail without losing the larger story. Absolutely still five stars; I bought a copy so I could annotate it and distribute it among friends, that's how much I loved it the first time and still love it. It really has shaped the way I understand union contracts, and I think it's just such a good introduction to good labor history. If you can get a hold of it, please check it out. It's just so good and a story told so well.
—
Reread February 2025: My favorite labor history book of all time at this point. I’m personally responsible for the sale of many copies and it’s because I genuinely believe the book is that good. It’s a book that has changed my life.
July 22, 2020
This book is absolutely breathtaking and brilliant. Centering on the history of the International Harvester corporation (named that after McCormick corporation merged with Deering in 1902), the biggest manufacturer of farm equipment in the world until the 1950s, and its workforce struggle against cutthroat exploitation and paternalism of scientific management with highlights in the Haymarket generation and the CIO generation. The story is multigenerational, tracing its long history through the winding roads of Cyrus McCormick II as he built the corporation into a juggernaut by mercilessly limiting the craft unions and eventually driving them out entirely decades. The protests for the 8 hour day, for instance, Gilpin notes, at Haymarket Square in 1886, were aimed at the McCormick Chicago works. The strikes that happened, led by craft unions, were sometimes successful and large, but always hampered by ethnic divisions. IH condemned unions and strikers as hotbeds of anarchist agitation, which was true, but only because of the brutal treatment and systematic squeezing of profits off the backs of working class people. Gilpin next takes us through the years as IH built up a reputation for heavy-handedness yet inclusion of union-substitute "works councils" in which workers received token representation in the affairs of the company, though largely ignored. Meanwhile McCormicks themselves go through family divorce and scandal as the rich often do. The participants in the Works Councils actually became more sympathetic to unionism and would eventually become key organizers. Much like the earlier generation, Gilpin notes, as the Depression reared its head, radicalism rose forward and a new union would form that quickly attached itself to the rising CIO unions: The United Farm Equipment Workers of America (FE).
The FE grew out committed Communist labor organizers who believed that "management had no right to exist". It would build a well earned reputation of being radical and troublesome, but only because it was very democratic and responsive to the grievances of its membership. After hardfought battles, the FE established itself as a fiercely militant union who followed IH in cities where its factories existed across the Midwest and into Louisville KT, where it built a multiracial solidarity-based union in a Jim Crow city, challenging not only the company but the local police and city. The FE saw contracts signed not as points of labor peace, but instead weapons to then use against the company by aggressively holding it to its provisions. That made the FE enormously popular and very hard to root out, resilient to charges of irresponsible radical leadership who encouraged wildcat strikes. They certainly did, but because that is what the workers wanted in order to push back against company demands.
The last part is about the demise of the FE, as it became a target of the anti-Communist crusade that brought an alliance of McCarthyist HUACers, the IH corporation, and their former CIO allies in the UAW (now under the leadership of anti-communist social democrat in Walter Reuther.) Gilpin does a fabulous job showing how the FE, usually with very little money, weather a barrage of UAW raids (nearly always defeated because workers didn't want labor peace), IH mobilization, and government harassment and jailing of its organizers. Forced to merge with the other target of anti-communist harassment in the United Electrical Workers (UE), it eventually fell apart when after years of having a target on its back, after the final defeat in the huge 1953 strike that was met with decisive defeat. The rements merged with the UAW as that union's anti-communist crusade slackened, as well as FE organizers falling out with the Communist Party. The UAW locals of IH continued a militant tradition until IH finally went under with decades of mismanagement and disassembled its last plants.
When I was researching my dissertation, I came across the FE mentioned quite a bit for a smaller union, yet not much literature was written about it despite most of the CIO unions being well documented. I saw it mentioned or documented in the archives of both the UAW and the UE, yet its story beyond being one of the "communist-dominated" unions booted out of the CIO during the Red Scare remained shrouded to me. Gilpin not only tells its story in a masterful combination of primary sources and direct interviews, she's also the daughter of one of the main organizers. The strength of the book is highlighting the lives of individuals, and telling the story from both the side of the protagonists (the working class organizers) and the antagonists (the McCormick dynasty and its IH managers), combing the best of labor history and business history. Each person has a story that Gilpin sees through, not content with a mere mention. The "Long Grudge" is that of how terrible workers were treated generationally and the struggle to reassert democratic control over their own lives, and Gilpin gives that multiracial cast a moving narrative. I was sort of shocked that Gilpin notes that this was originally a dissertation in the late 1980s that she figured no one would be interested in, because it is incredibly compelling and long read. As a historian, I've already incorporated the generational understanding of struggle between labor organizers and ordinary workers with the lords of industry.
Hats off, just solid solid work. It has helped get me through the pandemic that is occuring during the time I write this review.
The FE grew out committed Communist labor organizers who believed that "management had no right to exist". It would build a well earned reputation of being radical and troublesome, but only because it was very democratic and responsive to the grievances of its membership. After hardfought battles, the FE established itself as a fiercely militant union who followed IH in cities where its factories existed across the Midwest and into Louisville KT, where it built a multiracial solidarity-based union in a Jim Crow city, challenging not only the company but the local police and city. The FE saw contracts signed not as points of labor peace, but instead weapons to then use against the company by aggressively holding it to its provisions. That made the FE enormously popular and very hard to root out, resilient to charges of irresponsible radical leadership who encouraged wildcat strikes. They certainly did, but because that is what the workers wanted in order to push back against company demands.
The last part is about the demise of the FE, as it became a target of the anti-Communist crusade that brought an alliance of McCarthyist HUACers, the IH corporation, and their former CIO allies in the UAW (now under the leadership of anti-communist social democrat in Walter Reuther.) Gilpin does a fabulous job showing how the FE, usually with very little money, weather a barrage of UAW raids (nearly always defeated because workers didn't want labor peace), IH mobilization, and government harassment and jailing of its organizers. Forced to merge with the other target of anti-communist harassment in the United Electrical Workers (UE), it eventually fell apart when after years of having a target on its back, after the final defeat in the huge 1953 strike that was met with decisive defeat. The rements merged with the UAW as that union's anti-communist crusade slackened, as well as FE organizers falling out with the Communist Party. The UAW locals of IH continued a militant tradition until IH finally went under with decades of mismanagement and disassembled its last plants.
When I was researching my dissertation, I came across the FE mentioned quite a bit for a smaller union, yet not much literature was written about it despite most of the CIO unions being well documented. I saw it mentioned or documented in the archives of both the UAW and the UE, yet its story beyond being one of the "communist-dominated" unions booted out of the CIO during the Red Scare remained shrouded to me. Gilpin not only tells its story in a masterful combination of primary sources and direct interviews, she's also the daughter of one of the main organizers. The strength of the book is highlighting the lives of individuals, and telling the story from both the side of the protagonists (the working class organizers) and the antagonists (the McCormick dynasty and its IH managers), combing the best of labor history and business history. Each person has a story that Gilpin sees through, not content with a mere mention. The "Long Grudge" is that of how terrible workers were treated generationally and the struggle to reassert democratic control over their own lives, and Gilpin gives that multiracial cast a moving narrative. I was sort of shocked that Gilpin notes that this was originally a dissertation in the late 1980s that she figured no one would be interested in, because it is incredibly compelling and long read. As a historian, I've already incorporated the generational understanding of struggle between labor organizers and ordinary workers with the lords of industry.
Hats off, just solid solid work. It has helped get me through the pandemic that is occuring during the time I write this review.
March 6, 2020
The reverse story of Ali Baba and his 40 Thieves. In here, the thieves are humble victims of the rich traders who have the audacity to hire guards to protect their wares from the poor thieves.
January 21, 2023
Thoroughly researched and engagingly told.
May 1, 2025
Excellent historical grassroots activism by workers er decades. Gains for workers are never easy, but this shows shop floor solidarity is the way.
August 22, 2025
Gilpin is a terrific historian, and this is an excellent account of the Farm Equipment workers’ union, their struggles’ connection to longer histories of labor radicalism in and beyond Chicago, the CIO and the second red scare, interracial and antiracist unionism in 1940s Louisville, and internecine battles between unions with dramatically different visions of class power and workplace democracy. There is a wonderful anecdote in which the union officials try to circumvent concerns over a strike’s legality by terming it a “continuous meeting” rather than a walkout, and this struck me as both a) very funny and b) a very accurate description of at least the strikes I have been a part of, actually.
Read
March 4, 2020very good read, wonderfully rich writing style that moves despite the depth of the material
May 29, 2020
From the daughter of one of the principals in the union Farm equipment workers, this is kind of an inside story told by those involved in this union. Mos interesting to me was the conflict with the UAW and its philosophy of accommodation with management. At the time that seemed sensible and a workable strategy. We can see how that worked out in the terms of the long-term destruction of the labor movement. The radical philosophy of the FE was racial integration and union solidarity to stand up to the exploitative practices of international harvester. But they were destroyed by the red baiting of the federal government, the local government, and the UAW. Truly a fascinating story.
Read
April 20, 2020The author sets the stage in grand fashion.
Gilpin returns to her senior thesis because she felt the time has come to shed light on her father's union that did not believe that management should exist. While I think there are lessons to learn from this book, I think her book on the Yale clerical/technical workers' strike is actually the more relevant for the times. It certainly seems hard to imagine that a sustainable future will entail more industrialization, but perhaps my viewpoint is too narrowly focused on the US. It seems that a new labor era will require more feminism than this post-WWII climate, as many labor activists are pointing towards more horizontal industries such as healthcare & education for further activity.
I have not read too much labor history after WWI. I now see why some labor historians can point to the NLRB as a win, as the government does seem to encourage unionization leading up to WWII. The details of how this actually impacted the rank-and-file are scant. It feels like a pop-up, certainly a change in direction.
The book does show in better detail the views of black Americans during this time period, but does not delve into it deeply. Perhaps more context about the internationalism of Pan-African movements would have helped.
Gilpin returns to her senior thesis because she felt the time has come to shed light on her father's union that did not believe that management should exist. While I think there are lessons to learn from this book, I think her book on the Yale clerical/technical workers' strike is actually the more relevant for the times. It certainly seems hard to imagine that a sustainable future will entail more industrialization, but perhaps my viewpoint is too narrowly focused on the US. It seems that a new labor era will require more feminism than this post-WWII climate, as many labor activists are pointing towards more horizontal industries such as healthcare & education for further activity.
I have not read too much labor history after WWI. I now see why some labor historians can point to the NLRB as a win, as the government does seem to encourage unionization leading up to WWII. The details of how this actually impacted the rank-and-file are scant. It feels like a pop-up, certainly a change in direction.
The book does show in better detail the views of black Americans during this time period, but does not delve into it deeply. Perhaps more context about the internationalism of Pan-African movements would have helped.
January 1, 2023
Historian Toni Gilpin recounts the history of the Farm Equipment Workers union (FE), which practiced a militant and democratic form of unionism that contested the boss’s power on the shop floor as much as in contract negotiations. FE Director of Organization Milt Burns declared that “the philosophy of our union was that management had no right to exist.”
The Long Deep Grudge is, above all, great fun to read. Gilpin makes stories of union organization, shop-floor struggle, strikes and contract bargaining read like a great adventure novel. There are also colorful episodes of the sort one encounters less frequently in labor histories: a frame-up for murder, a scandalous high-society divorce, and a touching story of interracial friendship in the segregated South.
Throughout the book, Gilpin makes a compelling case that the aggressive shop-floor struggle conducted by rank-and-file FE members, and the majority-white FE’s deep commitment to racial equality, was inextricably connected to the left-wing views of the union's leadership.
(I wrote a longer review for the UE NEWS at: https://www.ueunion.org/ue-news-featu...)
The Long Deep Grudge is, above all, great fun to read. Gilpin makes stories of union organization, shop-floor struggle, strikes and contract bargaining read like a great adventure novel. There are also colorful episodes of the sort one encounters less frequently in labor histories: a frame-up for murder, a scandalous high-society divorce, and a touching story of interracial friendship in the segregated South.
Throughout the book, Gilpin makes a compelling case that the aggressive shop-floor struggle conducted by rank-and-file FE members, and the majority-white FE’s deep commitment to racial equality, was inextricably connected to the left-wing views of the union's leadership.
(I wrote a longer review for the UE NEWS at: https://www.ueunion.org/ue-news-featu...)
December 5, 2020
There are too many great passages in this book to quote here. The story of the American labor movement, the sacrifices and the deaths, the triumphs, no matter how fleeting is more important than ever now as our country and the world, the planet itself, are laid waste by rampant capitalism. Where were our rights were fought for and by whom? In our military loving political climate there is no mention of the fight for the 8 hour day, for decent working conditions and health and safety, for democracy that goes beyond the voting booth; democracy that manifests itself in our daily lives. This is a must read for anyone who wants to know why and how unions became managers of labor and pacified workers. This is a must read for anyone who wants to ask, “where would we be now if the Cold War against American workers had not been successful?”
September 22, 2020
Really fascinating, deep study of a single union at two or three worksites. Gilpin has a great analysis of the strengths of the Communist Party in the 50s, especially its intervention in civil rights struggles. I found the first portion, describing the IWW roots of the union, a little old hat, but if you don't know your labor history already you shouldn't skip it. I found myself wanting to read more about the UAW raids on the FE and how the UE's own officials ended up working for the UAW in the end. As with a lot of labor histories, I think you need to take the 'lessons' of this book with many grains of salt, but still a good read.
May 22, 2024
One of the best books I’ve read about organized labor. This long, engaging story tells the classic tale of the struggle between capital owners and workers and how the workers were able collectively leverage IH to improve working conditions and get what they were rightfully owed. This book makes me wonder if we will see a rebirth of labor unions and the labor movement during these times where income inequality and worsening labor conditions mimic what was occurring a century ago which lead to the birth of the FE union.
September 13, 2023
Fantastic read, almost too compelling!
Great mix of broader context and specific detail that really emphasizes key currents & observations. Also good sense of major players' personalities & their effects, without losing sight of larger movement trends.
I was reading this as a library book but decided to buy it a week ago as I absolutely know I'll be reading this again!
Great mix of broader context and specific detail that really emphasizes key currents & observations. Also good sense of major players' personalities & their effects, without losing sight of larger movement trends.
I was reading this as a library book but decided to buy it a week ago as I absolutely know I'll be reading this again!
March 28, 2025
The future of American labor should resemble what the FE accomplished. This book is a history, but it is also a roadmap. May we be as devoted to our working class causes as men like Jim Wright, Jim Mouser, Bud James, Jerry Fielde and all the others who fought every day for their rights. Solidarity can achieve incredible things.
April 2, 2022
This book was incredible and inspiring. Gilpin covers so much history in such an engaging way. I only wish I had read this sooner, especially when I was trying to organize at my previous place of employment.
June 7, 2020
An essential text for anti-racist, militant, rank-and-file unionism. So much to learn from in these pages.
June 22, 2025
If you're going to read one American labor history book...this is the one
April 6, 2024
Terrific, inspiring story of the rise and fall of the radical Farm Equipment workers union. Gilpin writes in a breezy, engaging way, and her personal connection to the story (her father was one of the founding leaders of the union, makes it even more powerful.
December 29, 2022
A VERY in-depth history of labor relations (or lack thereof) at industrial titan International Harvester, with specific emphasis on the United Farm Equipment Workers of America (FE). The longstanding feud between this union and the powerful McCormick family is indeed a fascinating one. Detours along the way include the Hay Market Riot, integration, McCarthyism and the Communist Party. The detailed descriptions of factory floor level organizing tactics was particularly interesting. Unfortunately, the book gets pretty repetitive as it goes on and sometimes the author can't get out of her own way. Still, a solid read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews