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.
Chapter 1. For Once in Common Front
Chapter 2. A Paradise for Workers and Speculators
Chapter 3. We May Not Always Be So Secure
Chapter 4. A Liberty-Thirsty People
Chapter 5. The Inevitable Uprising
Chapter 6. The Flame That Makes the Kettle Boil
Chapter 7. A Brutal and Inventive Vitality
Chapter 10. A Storm of Strikes
Chapter 12. The Strangest Frenzy
Chapter 13. Every Man on the Jury Was an American
Chapter 14. You Are Being Weighed in the Balance
Chapter 15. The Law Is Vindicated
Chapter 16. The Judgment of History