Here is a very cogent review of a book detailing the history of cooperatives in America. What is revealed is the fact that wage slavery in the early years of the United States was considered inferior to artisans and farmers owning their own means of production. In many cases, when workers went on strike, they would form competing cooperatives until their working conditions improved to such an extent that they would be willing to work for someone else. The cooperative model was marginalized severely by the rise of corporations and their increasing power after the Civil War. But this model still shows that there are viable alternatives to capitalism within the American economy.