A Theory of the Labor Movement

A student and collaborator of John R. Commons, Perlman presented in this work perhaps the best-known and most controversial theory of trade unionism. Drawing upon the historical generalizations of Max Weber and Werner Sombart, Perlman sought to identify those conditions under which a labor union develops as well as the specific rational and historical factors that shape its development. He carefully defined the confines of worker group loyalty, pointing out the absence of "class" loyalty in the American context. The "manual workers" lack of faith in their ability to survive in the factor market, and thus their willingness to trade purported freedom of contract for a share of the collective voice controlling job ownership, provides the key to Perlman's theory of unionism. "His most important work." The New Palgrave