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George J. Saul "The Making of a Rebel in America, An Unfinished Autobiography" Manuscript

 Collection
Identifier: 5491m

Scope and Contents

Consists of a single draft of an uncompleted autobiography. The bulk of the autobiography concerns Saul's life prior to his becoming involved with the union movement. The aspects of Saul's life discussed include his childhood in Colorado, his experiences in the army during World War I, and his years as a college student in Dvner during the 1920s. The latter part of the manuscript cursorily covers Saul's union activities, including his participation in the Colorado Fuel and Iron and Gastonia strikes. Also included in the latter part is a brief discussion of the formation of the UAW in Detroit. The manuscript also briefly covers the impact of the Sacco and Vanzetti case on the development of Saul's radicalism; the need to organize black workers, particularly in the South; the author's reasons for leaving the union movment; and his reasons for defecting to Trotskyism.

Dates

  • 1969

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

Labor activist, union organizer, social theorist and Trotskyite.



George Saul was active in the union movement during the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. During this period, Saul was involved in a number of significant struggles between labor and capital, including the I.W.W.-led strike of miners against the Rockefeller owned Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in 1927 and the communist-led strike of textile workers in Gastonia, N.C. in 1929. He was also involved in organizing Ford employees in Detroit in the 1930s and early 1940s. While a member of the United Automobile Workers (CIO), Saul was constantly at odds with the union leadership and, as a result, left the union movement shortly after the end of World War II. Saul was also active in the Communist Party during the 1920s, turning to Trotskyism in the 1930s because of disagreements with the party leadership over tactics and general principles.

Extent

1 folders

Abstract

"The Making of A Rebel in America: An Unfinished Autobiography" by George James Saul (May 24, 1897-January 27, 1967), with an introduction by William Edward Saul.

Quantity:

1 file folder.

Forms of Material:

Autobiographies, drafts (documents), manuscripts (documents) .

General

Contact Information:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel-center
Compiled by:
Kheel Staff, October 21, 2013
EAD encoding:
Kheel Staff, March 14, 2019
Title
Saul, George J. "The Making of a Rebel in America, An Unfinished Autobiography" Manuscript
Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Kheel Staff
Date
March 14, 2019
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Revision Statements

  • 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)

Repository Details

Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository

Contact:
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853