During the Cold War, the anti-communist American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) set a strong example for labour organizations overseas. The AFL-CIO cooperated with the US government on foreign policy and enjoyed an intimate relationship with the CIA. Having mastered the correspondence and other records generated by staffers Lovestone and Brown, Dr Carew maps the international programmes of the AFL-CIO and its relations with labour organizations abroad, in addition to providing a summary of the labour situation in countries in Europe and Asia. At the end of the s, the AFL-CIO broke with the mainstream international labour movement to pursue its crusade against communism.