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According to most authors who have studied the history of labor sociology in France, that specialization came into being at the Centre d’études sociologiques. But if previously unknown facts are examined, it becomes clear that this proposition needs to be corrected: the Institut des sciences sociales du travail must be attributed its proper weight in the founding of this scientific specialization. The institute was created by the Ministry of Labor and assigned the task of researching labor-related problems. This policy, which fit into the overall framework for modernizing France in the 1950s, immediately encountered the hopes and expectations of recently hired CNRS researchers. This analysis shows how that encounter unfolded and what it has left to its heirs: a research movement and a style; a journal.