Philip Foner

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Philip S. Foner (December 14, 1910 - December 13, 1994) was a United States historian and author. He is best known for his 10-volume History of the Labor Movement in the United States, written beginning in 1947, with the last volume published just before his death in 1994.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Philip Foner was born to Russian immigrant parents on Manhattan's Lower East Side in New York City. He grew up in Brooklyn, and graduated from Eastern District High School. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1932, and his master's degree from Columbia University in 1933. That same year, he became an instructor of history at CCNY. In 1941, he received his Ph.D. from Columbia.

[edit] Termination for Allegedly Communist Activities at CCNY

In 1941, Foner and 50 other faculty members at the City College of New York were forced from their teaching jobs during an investigation of alleged communist influences in higher education by the New York state legislature's anti-communist Rapp-Coudert Committee (officially known as the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate the Educational System of the State of New York). Foner's three brothers—Jack, a professor of history at CCNY; Moe, a worker in the CCNY registrar's office; and Henry, a substitute teacher in the New York City public schools—were terminated from their jobs as well.

After his dismissal from City College, Foner became the chief editor for Citadel Press.

Twenty-six years later, in 1967, Foner was hired as a history professor at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a post he held until his retirement in 1979.

In 1979, nearly three decades after the mass firings at City College, the New York State Board of Higher Education apologized to the Rapp-Coudert victims, terming the conduct of the Rapp-Coudert Committee "an egregious violation of academic freedom."[1]

Foner also became a professor of history at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey in 1981.

[edit] Accusations of Plagiarism

In 1971, it was alleged that Foner plagiarized material from an unpublished master's thesis by James O. Morris. After his death, several historians made new allegations of plagiarism against Foner on Internet discussion lists. University of Rochester historian Melvyn Dubofsky alleged plagiarism of parts of his dissertation in a volume of Foner's History of the Labor Movement in the United States, and alleged that Foner had used unattributed material from newspaper articles. During the Internet discussion, anti-communist historian John Earl Haynes also alleged citation improprieties.[2]

In the same Internet list discussion, [3] Mark Lause, associate professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, defended Foner, saying:

"I have freely criticized Phil Foner's work many times and in many venues, mostly for sloppy mistakes that went unquestioned because of his unexamined assumptions."
"However, Phil Foner's record of original scholarship was monumental, and he had the guts to ask the important questions where others remain mute. He often did not fully comprehend the significance of what he was getting into print, and we are his beneficiaries because we get to follow up. Frankly, anyone on this list would be fortunate if we can leave a legacy with a fraction of the importance of Foner's multi-volume documentary collection on black workers in America—to mention just one of his projects."
"Foner doggedly pursued these goals in a profession that did not accord his projects the kind of time or support needed to do even a fraction of them as well as they might have been done. That was—and remains—more a failing of the profession." [4]

[edit] Trivia

Foner married the Roslyn Held in 1939. They had two children, Elizabeth and Laura. After Roslyn's death, Foner married Rhoda Lischtash in 1988; they divorced in 1991.

Philip Foner was the uncle of historian Eric Foner.

[edit] Books by Philip S. Foner

  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 1: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor. New York: International Publishers, 1947. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0089-X; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0376-7
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 2: From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism. New York: International Publishers, 1955. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0092-X; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0388-0
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 3: The Policies and Practices of the American Federation of Labor, 1900-1909. New York: International Publishers, 1964. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0093-8; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0389-9
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 4: Industrial Workers of the World. New York: International Publishers, 1965. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0094-6; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0396-1
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 5: The AFL in the Progressive Era, 1910-1915. New York: International Publishers, 1980. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0570-0; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0562-X
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 6: On the Eve of America's Entrance into World War I, 1915-1916. New York: International Publishers, 1982. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0602-2; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0595-6
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 7: Labor and World War I, 1914-1918. New York: International Publishers, 1987. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0638-3; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0627-8
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 8: Postwar Struggles, 1918-1920. New York: International Publishers, 1988. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0653-7; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0652-9
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 9: The T.U.E.L. to the End of the Gompers Era. New York: International Publishers, 1991. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0673-1; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0674-X
  • Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 10: The T.U.E.L., 1925-1929. New York: International Publishers, 1994. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0690-1; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0091-X

[edit] References

  • Crowe, Kenneth C. 'Philip Foner, Leading Labor Historian, Dies.' Newsday, December 15, 1994, p. A64.
  • McLemee, Scott. "Seeing Red: Philip Foner influenced a generation of young labor historians, but critics call him a plagiarist who helped himself to their research." Chronicle of Higher Education. 49:42 (June 27, 2003), p. A11.
  • Van Gelder, Lawrence. 'Philip S. Foner, Labor Historian and Professor, 84.' New York Times, December 15, 1994, p. B20.
  • Who's Who in America. 49th ed. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 1995.
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