Paul Frederick Brissenden (September 21, 1885 – November 29, 1974) was an American
labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
, who wrote on various labor issues in the first half of the 20th century. He is perhaps best known for his 1919 work on the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines genera ...
, entitled ''The IWW: a Study of American Syndicalism.''
Biography
Brissenden was born in
Benzonia, Michigan
Benzonia ( ) is a village in Benzie County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 497 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Benzonia Township at the southeast end of Crystal Lake on U.S. Highway 31 at the junction with M- ...
, to parents James T. Brissenden and Retta Odell Lewis, both of whom were born in Ohio. His father worked as a farmer. He had two younger brothers, Louis and Richard, and a younger sister, Elizabeth. He earned his Master of Arts at the University of California in 1912, and completed his doctorate in political science at Columbia University in 1917 under supervision of
Henry Rogers Seager
Henry Rogers Seager (July 21, 1870 – August 23, 1930, Kiev, Russia) was an American economist, and Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University, who served as president of the American Association for Labor Legislation.
Inspired by th ...
.
In 1914, Brissenden worked for the
U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations
The Commission on Industrial Relations (also known as the Walsh Commission) p. 12. was a commission created by the U.S. Congress on August 23, 1912, to scrutinize US labor law. The commission studied work conditions throughout the industrial Unit ...
. From 1915 to 1920, he worked for the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of th ...
. He also held position of professor of economics at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.
Brissenden was married to wife Margaret Geer, and was a father of three sons, Donald, Arik, and Hoke. He died on November 29, 1974 in San Diego, California.
Work
One of his main works was ''The IWW: a Study of American Syndicalism'', published in 1919, a seminal work on the
IWW
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
.
In 1920, he documented labor disputes between miners in
Butte
__NOTOC__
In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...
and the
Anaconda Copper Mining Company
The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, known as the Amalgamated Copper Company between 1899 to 1915, was an American mining company headquartered in Butte, Montana. It was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century and one of the largest min ...
.
In 1923 he wrote ''Justice and the IWW'' in 1923, in which he criticized the prosecution of I.W.W. members and defended the actions of the IWW members who were imprisoned. He pointed out the prosecutions failure to actually identify the 15,000 alleged
deserter
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ...
s, challenged the legality of the evidence seized in raids based on void warrants, and argued that prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence that IWW members had directly obstructed the war, but convicted them on the basis of their association with the IWW. He concludes that members are being imprisoned just for opposing the war.
[Paul F. Brissenden, Justice and the IWW (Chicago, General Defense Committee: 1922)]
Selected publications
* 1913,
The launching of the Industrial workers of the world''
* 1918, ''Employment system of the Lake Carriers' Association.''
* 1919,
The IWW: a Study of American Syndicalism''
* 1919, ''Employment policies and labor mobility in a California sugar refinery''
* 1919, ''Labor policies and labor turnover in the California oil-refining industry''
* 1920. ''Causes of labor turnover,'' co-authored with Emil Frankel.
* 1922,
Labor Turnover in Industry, , a statistical analysis' co-authored with Emil Frankel.
* 1923. ''Justice and the IWW''
* 1923. ''Changes in the purchasing power of manufacturing labor incomes in the United States''.
* 1929, ''Earnings of factory workers, 1899 to 1927.''
* 1920. ''Labor turnover and the federal service.''
* 1930, ''The use of the labor injunction in the New York needle trades.''
* 1933, ''Campaign against the labor injunction''.
* 1936, ''Report of the special commission on wage differentials in the cap and cloth hat industry.''
* 1937, ''The economic condition of the millinery manufacturing industry in the New York Metropolitan Area, 1935-1936.''
* 1939, ''Progress and poverty in millinery manufacturing.''
* 1948, ''Union-management co-operation in millinery manufacturing in the New York metropolitan area.''
* 1951, ''Public policy in collective bargaining.''
* 1965, ''The labor injunction in Hawaii.''
* 1965. ''Settlement of disputes over grievances in the United States : with marginal references to Australia and New Zealand'',
* 1965. ''The challenge of industrial relations in the Pacific-Asian countries,'' co-edited
* 1966, ''The settlement of labor disputes on rights in Australia''.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brissenden, Paul Frederick
1885 births
1974 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
Labor historians
Columbia University alumni
Historians of the Industrial Workers of the World
University of California alumni
People from Benzie County, Michigan
Historians from Michigan
American male non-fiction writers