Walter Reuther was a central figure in many of the social and political movements of the mid-twentieth century. The book examines his formative years in Wheeling, his two years in Germany and West1ern Europe during the rise of Hitler and working at tne Gorky autoworks in the Soviet Union. He returned to the United States to witness the birth of the CIO and quickly become one of the leaders of the United Autoworkers Union. He served as its president from 1945 until his death in a 1972 plane crash. He survived three assasination attempts. He was prominent in the labor movement, the civil rights movement and the environmental movement of the early seventies. He was prominent on the world stage as a confidant to the emerging leaders of Europe, travelling to India as a goodwill ambassador and meeting with Mikoyan and Krushchev during their visits to the United States. He was known as the idea man for his plans for increasing war production during WW2 to his plan for the Peace Corps that he developed through the fifties and pitched to Kennedy during the 1960 campaign. The book is a sweeping but lively traipse through the twentieth century with Reuther as the main protagonist in many of its chapters..
Walter ReutherJames Ten Eyck2024-01-10T17:08:41+00:00