August Sartorius von Waltershausen (1852–1938) was an eminent German economist who visited the United States at the beginning of the 1880s and wrote a series of articles on the US labor movement, which were published in Germany. His training in the historical school of economics provided him with a different perspective from that of laissez-faire economists or socialists of his time. The articles are translated in this book, and presented with a biographical essay by Marcel van der Linden and Gregory Zieren and with an essay on his contribution to the writing of American labor history by David Montgomery. This book provides rich insights into the character of American workers' organizations as they recovered from the depression of the 1870s, before the establishment of strong national institutions.

"...makes a notable contribution to the collective project of understanding America's peculiar labor politics." Gerald Friedman, The Journal of American History

"As valuable as the specific information offered by Sartorius is, what stands out most in The Workers' Movement in the United States is his ability to capture the range of goals, tactics, impulses, and motivations that animated American workers across regions and a multitude of trades. The publication of this selection of Sartorius' articles makes available to English-language readers a rarely consulted but extraordinarily rich and insightful study of American trade union and working-class perspectives and practices in the late-19th century." Eric Arnesen, Labor History