Abstract
Histories which have dealt with the Boston Police Strike of 1919 have largely failed to properly explain why the policemen chose to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor and ultimately chose to walk off the job. Instead, historians largely focus on the events of the strike itself. This approach makes the walkout an inevitable event caused by labor activism of the time. Instead of focusing on the lead up to the strike, this study focuses largely on the events and decisions before the strike, not only in Boston, but throughout the United States. Doing so allows for a greater contextualization of the relationship between the American Federation of Labor and labor in general and policemen throughout the country. Rather than seeing police unionization in Boston as an inevitable event brought about by Progressive reforms, this study posits that the refusal of Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis to deal with police grievances, leaving the American Federation of Labor, newly interested in unionizing police unions, a the only viable option for the policemen to seek redress.