Overview

Karen Pastorello's pathbreaking biography of Bessie Abramowitz Hillman places this remarkable labor leader and Progressive Era activist at the center of the founding of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Bridging the gap between Progressive social feminism and the labor feminists of the post-World War II period, Hillman worked to end race and class injustice and improve the quality of life for working women, even as she was overshadowed by her husband, union leader Sidney Hillman. Interweaving Hillman's experiences as an Eastern European Jewish immigrant with a rich historical account of the founding and development of a key garment union, Pastorello reveals the prominent role of women labor activists in both the workplace and union leadership.

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A Power Among Themis a lively account of the life of Bessie Hillman, a woman who has previously not received enough attention given the important role she played in improving rights for women, immigrants, African Americans, and the working class in the United States. --Labour/Le Travail Valuable in its focus on a figure underappreciated even in other literature on the ACW... A real contribution to the scholarship on the struggle of labor women to merge class and gender identities in finding meaningful work and building productive lives. --American Jewish History A carefully researched and engaging biography that makes vivid the many changes affecting union women in the twentieth century. --Enterprise and Society The book is written with such craft that it reads almost like entertaining historical fiction... A great resource for labor history and women's studies collections. Highly recommended. --Choice

<p> A Power Among Them is a lively account of the life of Bessie Hillman, a woman who has previously not received enough attention given the important role she played in improving rights for women, immigrants, African Americans, and the working class in the United States. -- Labour/Le Travail

Valuable in its focus on a figure underappreciated even in other literature on the ACW. . . . A real contribution to the scholarship on the struggle of labor women to merge class and gender identities in finding meaningful work and building productive lives. -- American Jewish History

Author Information

Karen Pastorello chairs the Women and Gender Studies Program and is a professor of history at Tompkins Cortland Community College. She is the author of The Progressives: Activism and Reform in American Society, 1893-1917.

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