(See Cover)
On a bleak November day in 1952, twelve men dressed in somber suits gathered in a waiting room in Coshocton, Ohio. They were members of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor, and they had just attended the funeral of 82-year-old William Green, their longtime chief. As the labor leaders waited for the train, Green's successor, George Meany, bluntly announced that he had chosen William Schnitzler, of the Bakery Workers Union, to be secretary-treasurer of the federation. Old Dan Tobin, president emeritus of the Teamsters Union, objected angrily....