Seeing Red

By SCOTT McLEMEE

Philip Foner influenced a generation of young labor historians, but critics call him a plagiarist who helped himself to their research

It all started on a friendly enough note, as an online chat among labor historians about the definitive books in their field. Late last month, in the course of a few rounds of e-mail messages, subscribers to H-Labor listed a wide range of titles that they would recommend to their students. The tone was collegial; some scholars even had the pleasure of