Education for Struggle: The American Labor Colleges of the 1920s and 1930s

Richard J. Altenbaugh focuses on the establishment and evolution of three of the major labor colleges. The three schools—Work People's College (1904-41) in Duluth, Minnesota, Brookwood Labor College (1921-37) in Katonah, New York, and Commonwealth College (1923-41) near Mena, Arkansas—were selected because of their longevity, notoriety, geographical diversity, and abundant archives. Collectively these three schools accounted for more than sixty years of workers' education during the early decades of the twentieth century.