Knowledge is Power: The Rise and Fall of the Libraries of the United Automobile Workers’ Union

Abstract

This article traces the history of libraries run by local unions of the International United Automobile Workers' union (UAW) from the mid-1930s through the 1950s. Using the records of the UAW it examines the purpose of its libraries and the workers' education program they were part of. It analyzes the collections in these libraries and considers how they were developed, who used them, and how they fared in light of the role of print in the UAW's activities and of Depression, wartime-era, and postwar working-class reading culture.