America. More than other organizations such as churches or regional groups, Schneider maintains, trade unions were in the best position to build community in a new, rapidly changing industrial society.Why were the unions so well suited to the development of the German-American working class and its integration into North American society and politics? What was the effect of the trade unions' central role on the community as a whole? Did these unions carry their community-building role into the American trade union movement in general? To answer these questions, Schneider focuses on German-American skilled workers, portraying a group of immigrants who brought from Europe not just their pre-industrial traditions but also a wealth of experience in industrialized settings and a diverse political culture.Examining bakers, brewery workers, and cigar makers, she highlights the origins of the political culture of the American immigrant working class in a new way. Schneider argues that, in spite of the contradictory interests of traditionalists, political progressives, and assimilationists, German-American workers favored a centralized craft unionism and thus became backers of Samuel Gompers's American Federation of Labor.

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