Labor’s Untold Story has been for many decades the definitive labor history book for union members and students here and abroad. In fact, for a long time in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, there was little else available for anyone who wanted to read something substantial on the subject. As the cover has advertised since its first publication in 1955, it is “The adventure story of the battles, betrayals and victories of American working men and women.”

And as authors Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais intended, their book was a partisan call to action for workers playing their parts in the broad class struggle. There’s no love for the bosses or their political front men in this volume.

Labor’s Untold Story takes a side — the working class’s. It’s a book intended to educate and motivate the reader, portraying class struggle as anything but an academic exercise. The original cover in 1955 featured a photo of steelworker strikers assembled in front of the Chicago Republic Steel plant, being menaced by cops and company goons, just seconds before the cops attacked, killed, and grievously wounded twenty-three of those strikers in the 1937 Little Steel strike.