A common interpretation of the 1920s move of a number American labor unions from a progressive agenda to the business unionism more oriented towards the status quo is simply that they collapsed in the face of a hostile social involvement and divisions within the movement. Bae (history, Soul National U., South Korea), analyzing the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Workers, contends that a more important phenomenon was the declining sense of community among the workers. She argues that the immigrant communities that predominated in the clothing trades slowly became enculturated with an American ethos that included strong currents of consumerism and racism, which in turn weakened the strong sense of communalism that had been their greatest strength in fighting employers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)