Audiobook12 hours
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America
Written by James Green
Narrated by Joel Richards
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded at a Chicago labor rally, wounding dozens of policemen, seven of whom eventually died. A wave of mass hysteria swept the country, leading to a sensational trial, that culminated in four controversial executions, and dealt a blow to the labor movement from which it would take decades to recover.
Historian James Green recounts the rise of the first great labor movement in the wake of the Civil War and brings to life an epic twenty-year struggle for the eight-hour workday. Blending a gripping narrative, outsized characters, and a panoramic portrait of a major social movement, Death in the Haymarket is an important addition to the history of American capitalism and a moving story about the class tensions at the heart of Gilded Age America.
Historian James Green recounts the rise of the first great labor movement in the wake of the Civil War and brings to life an epic twenty-year struggle for the eight-hour workday. Blending a gripping narrative, outsized characters, and a panoramic portrait of a major social movement, Death in the Haymarket is an important addition to the history of American capitalism and a moving story about the class tensions at the heart of Gilded Age America.
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Reviews for Death in the Haymarket
Rating: 4.115384615384615 out of 5 stars
4/5
39 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A decent book about the labor movement in Chicago in the 1870s and 1880s. The main story focuses on the famous Haymarket incident where dynamite (or was it?) was thrown into a crowd of policemen who were trying to break up what had been a peaceful crowd of demonstrators. The last 100 pages of the book that focus on the incident and resulting court case were the most interesting by far. I felt like the book could have been cut in half and told this story. The first half of the book traces the labor movement in the years leading up to the bombing. Some of this was interesting, but it seemed to be a whole history of rinse and repeat and it was tough reading after a while. I don't think it helped that labor history is probably what I am least interest in.
Overall I am glad I read the book because it is a period of history I know the least about. I would recommend the book to history lovers, but only if you enjoy this time period or labor history. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You may be surprised to know that the nation’s first red scare predates McCarthyism by more than 6 decades. Labor historian James Green brings vividly to life the struggle for the 8-hour working day at its epicenter, Chicago of the 1860s to the 1880s. But this books is much more than an academic history of the American working class - it also includes the drama and suspense of a courtroom thriller. The other protagonists in this books are the men who would ultimately be known throughout the world as the 'Martyrs of Haymarket' and serve as the inspiration for the designation of May 1 as international labor day. The defendants of ‘the trial of the [19th] century’ were 8 anarchists whose ‘incendiary’ words were used to convict them of the death of several police officers and civilians when in May of 1886 an unidentified individual threw an explosive device on a workers’ demonstration at Haymarket Square. Green’s narrative completely immerses you in the lives of the anarchists who played a leading role in the Chicago workers’ fight for a shorter working day. The author’s description of the trial and the attempt to secure an amnesty seems so much like a first-hand account that it almost appears for a while that the lives of the key anarchists - Parsons, Spies, Engel, and Fischer- will be spared but history tells us otherwise. The red scare that ensued after the Haymarket explosion led not only to the suppression of radicals of all shades but also to the defeat of the labor movement and its aftermath continued to affect American workers well into the 20th century. Green’s description of the authorities’ attack on civil liberties in order to stamp out ‘un-American’ beliefs is also eerily reminiscent of recent developments.