Henry Kraus (November 13, 1905 in Knoxville, Tennessee – January 27, 1995 in Paris)^[1] was an American labor historian, and European art historian.^[2]

He graduated from the University of Chicago and Western Reserve University with a master's degree in 1928. He was an organizer of the Flint Sit-Down Strike,^[3] and edited The Flint Auto Worker.^[4] Sol Dollinger was critical of his account of the strike.^[5]

He married Dorothy Kraus, who helped organize the UAW Women's Auxiliary.^[6] He was the first editor of the United Automobile Workers' newspaper, The United Auto Worker. He moved to Paris, and worked as a European correspondent for World Wide Medical News Service. His papers are at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University.^[7][8]

Awards

• 1984 MacArthur Fellows Program

Archival Collections

The Henry Kraus Papers at the Walter P. Reuther Library date from 1926-1960. His papers reflect his attempts to organize auto workers and the early history of the United Automobile Workers from 1935-1941. Particularly well-documented in the collection are the Flint sit-down strike and factionalism within the UAW.

Works

• Heroes of Unwritten Story, University of Illinois Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0-252-06397-8
• The Many and the Few, University of Illinois Press, 1947, ISBN 978-0-252-01199-3
• The Living Theater of Medieval Art, Indiana University Press, 1967 (reprint University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972, ISBN 978-0-8122-1056-9)
• Hidden World of Misericords, Authors Dorothy Kraus, Henry Kraus, Joseph, 1976, ISBN 978-0-7181-1485-5
• Gothic Stalls of Spain, Authors Dorothy Kraus, Henry Kraus, Routledge, 1986, ISBN 978-0-7102-0294-9
• Gold Was the Mortar: The Economics of Cathedral Building. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, ISBN 978-0-7100-8728-7