This volume contains entries that deal with concepts, events, persons, and movements in u.s. history. The length of the entries is appropriate to the topic considered. In addition, the entires both inform the reader with up-to-date information and indicate how revisionist historians have resahped opionions or refocused the discipline. The entries are clearly written and eminently readable. They are persuasive in thier opionions, yet respectful of other stances. The cross references are helpful and ample. The same obtains for the bibliographies. The Oxford Companion to U.S. History far surpasses some other contemporary dictionaries in U.S. history. Its articles are treated in more depth and greater nuances. The entries in the other dictionaries are too short and far too superficial. I would highly recommend this for people involved in serious historical study and research. The price, especially the discounted one offered by amazon.com, is well worth the investment for scholars,libraries, and families.

This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in American History. It gives a clear, concise explanation on most important aspects of the United States history and the history of the lands that would eventually become the United States. The most unique aspect of this book is that, unlike a school textbook, it explains a topics role throughout the history of the United States in on section. In other words, if you looked up Civil Rights, you would find a history of Civil Rights in America from the colonial period to present. All the background information you would need would be in one place, not scattered throughout the book. This is beneficial for teachers who need to quickly find some basic information to answer a student's question, or for a student who needs to quickly brush up on a topic. This is a work that I will definetly use for years to come.

This book caused a major stir when first released in the 60s. But labor history studies have changed a great deal since that time. The entire orientation of this book is patronizing to the amazing works of the IWW.

For example:

1) It completely ignores the IWW's international aspects, for example that the IWW had more influence in Chile and Australia than in the US and Canada.

2) It glosses over the IWWs activities during the 1920s, the Marine Transport Workers' control of the Wetsern Hemisphere's shipping, longshore workers in North America, the 1927 Colorado Miners' Strike, etc. etc.

3) It has no coherent understanding of why the IWW declined. How FDR worked with Lewis and the CIO to force unionization, the principled stands the IWW took to stop the rise of business unionism, and some buttheadedess by the IWW's membership.

It contains many good stories and is an OK overview. The definitive work is still waiting on the subject.

Historiographically speaking, this is THE book to read on the history of the IWW. There are other attempts worth reading, (Renshaw or Thompson for example) but for a solidly researched, brilliantly written academic study, this is the place to go. Renshaw's book includes a few things on the IWW oustide North America, and can be thought of as an easy to read summary, but as a historical research and analysis work, it is not in the same league. Thompson's official history of the IWW is a different attempt as well, as its focus is strictly an institutional history; it is not a work of historical research and analysis, it is written in the dry prose of a chronicler's accounts. You won't find in-depth analyses and a major historian's work there, although it has its uses. Given the fact that We Shall Be All was produced more than three decades ago, it still holds much better than a great many number of studies published in its time. In the absence of a new and comprehensive historical work on the history of the IWW, Dubofsky's book is still the major, requisite reading on the subject.