Silk Stockings and Socialism

“Grounded in archival research and oral history interviews. . . . McConnell-Sidorick does not shy away from questions of race and sexuality where her evidence speaks directly to these topics. Recommended.” — CHOICE

“Skillful weaving of the interrelationship of human rights, women’s rights, and industrial unionism and the importance of a community-based approach in teasing out the threads of worker’s activism.” — Labour/Le Travail

“Sharon McConnell-Sidorick’s engaging history of a radical labor union in 1920s Philadelphia speaks to some of the most exciting developments in labor and women’s history.” — Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

“A thoroughly researched and elegantly written account that enriches our understanding of the interwar years. In a compelling analysis, the book shows how labor activism shaped working-class identity and contributed to an emerging social welfare state at a time of economic crisis and cultural change.”—American Historical Review

“It is remarkable that the hosiery workers’ central role in the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s has been as overlooked as it has been in the historical literature. McConnell-Sidorick is the first to fully tell this story, and she tells it masterfully. For anyone trying to understand the trajectory of the U.S. labor movement in the twentieth century, this book is a vital resource.” — Janet Irons, author of Testing the New Deal

“McConnell-Sidorick’s study highlights the importance of community-based unionism and radical ideals in shaping the struggle for social justice in the twentieth century. It is based in the Kensington area of Philadelphia and a small hosiery workers union, but the author is able to tell a much larger story that expands beyond the boundaries of this space and organization. Her story is about the creation of a social movement . . . that carried the values of the Knights of Labor into a new era.” — Rosemary Feurer, author of Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900–1950