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Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
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.
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2006
95 people are currently reading
2909 people want to read
About the author
James R. Green
123 books19 followersJames Robert Green (November 4, 1944 – June 23, 2016) was an American historian, author, and labor activist. He was Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Green received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1972. Green studied under the legendary historian C. Vann Woodward, and became acquainted with the leftist historians Eric Hobsbawm and Herbert Gutman. During this time he also was involved in the anti-war movement, which eventually sparked his interest in the history of radicalism in the United States.
Green's research focuses on radical political and social movements in the U.S. (including new social movements), as well as the history of labor unions in the United States. Green writes social and political history from "the bottom up." He writes from a leftist theoretical standpoint.
In 1987, in addition to continuing on the faculty at UMass-Boston, Green was named a lecturer at the Harvard Trade Union Program (now called the Labor and Worklife Program) at Harvard Law School.
In 1995, Green founded the Labor Resource Center at UMass-Boston.
In 1998, Green was named a Fulbright scholar and taught at the University of Genoa in Italy.
Green was a member of the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA). He was a vice president of LAWCHA from 2001 to 2003 and its president from 2003 to 2005.
Green received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1972. Green studied under the legendary historian C. Vann Woodward, and became acquainted with the leftist historians Eric Hobsbawm and Herbert Gutman. During this time he also was involved in the anti-war movement, which eventually sparked his interest in the history of radicalism in the United States.
Green's research focuses on radical political and social movements in the U.S. (including new social movements), as well as the history of labor unions in the United States. Green writes social and political history from "the bottom up." He writes from a leftist theoretical standpoint.
In 1987, in addition to continuing on the faculty at UMass-Boston, Green was named a lecturer at the Harvard Trade Union Program (now called the Labor and Worklife Program) at Harvard Law School.
In 1995, Green founded the Labor Resource Center at UMass-Boston.
In 1998, Green was named a Fulbright scholar and taught at the University of Genoa in Italy.
Green was a member of the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA). He was a vice president of LAWCHA from 2001 to 2003 and its president from 2003 to 2005.
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August 27, 2023
The Haymarket Massacre of 1886 and it’s aftermath encapsulates critical problems that still plague America. Class oppression, the fight for fair working conditions, free speech and it’s repression, hatred and fear of immigrants, police violence, the legitimacy of power — all these elements were in play in Chicago in 1886, and, sadly, all are still current as today’s newspaper. That’s why this is important history. That’s why this is an important book.
Death in the Haymarket is an information-rich book. James Green meticulously builds the necessary context for the tragic events of May 4th, 1886. He lays out the economic and cultural make up of post Civil War Chicago — the soaring success of the capital class, growing industrialization, poor immigrants flocking to the city’s industry — and he layers this over the growing realization of the laboring classes that, while a great war had just been fought to end slavery in America, most workers were still little more than poorly treated indentured laborers. And this led to the first, great labor battle in America — the fight for the eight hour day. This awakening of the working classes became known as The Great Upheaval, and the events of this book mark its climax.
We want to feel the sunshine
We want to smell the flowers
We’re sure God has willed it
And we mean to have eight hours.
We’re summoning our forces from
Shipyard, shop, and mill
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest,
Eight hours for what we will.
~Laborers song
This is a sad story, because the working people who rose up passionately with such a reasonable request were crushed. Some workers were murdered by the police. When they protested this, their leaders were rounded up, given a kangaroo court, and subjected to judicial murder. The press slandered them, the police brutalized them, the courts railroaded them, and the respectable public feared and hated them. Their right to even speak was criminalized. Many decades would pass before this most modest demand for an eight hour workday prevailed.
But the Massacre at the Haymarket made martyrs — names that would inspire generations of labor activists, names you should know:
Albert Parsons
August Spies
Samuel Fielden
Adolph Fischer
”The Haymarket anarchists were heroic martyrs brave enough to die for the cause of working class emancipation. Indeed, the anarchist’s trial and execution became, in the hands of working class preservationist, a passion play about the prophets who surrendered their lives for a world wide worker’s movement.”
Death in the Haymarket is an information-rich book. James Green meticulously builds the necessary context for the tragic events of May 4th, 1886. He lays out the economic and cultural make up of post Civil War Chicago — the soaring success of the capital class, growing industrialization, poor immigrants flocking to the city’s industry — and he layers this over the growing realization of the laboring classes that, while a great war had just been fought to end slavery in America, most workers were still little more than poorly treated indentured laborers. And this led to the first, great labor battle in America — the fight for the eight hour day. This awakening of the working classes became known as The Great Upheaval, and the events of this book mark its climax.
We want to feel the sunshine
We want to smell the flowers
We’re sure God has willed it
And we mean to have eight hours.
We’re summoning our forces from
Shipyard, shop, and mill
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest,
Eight hours for what we will.
~Laborers song
This is a sad story, because the working people who rose up passionately with such a reasonable request were crushed. Some workers were murdered by the police. When they protested this, their leaders were rounded up, given a kangaroo court, and subjected to judicial murder. The press slandered them, the police brutalized them, the courts railroaded them, and the respectable public feared and hated them. Their right to even speak was criminalized. Many decades would pass before this most modest demand for an eight hour workday prevailed.
But the Massacre at the Haymarket made martyrs — names that would inspire generations of labor activists, names you should know:
Albert Parsons
August Spies
Samuel Fielden
Adolph Fischer
”The Haymarket anarchists were heroic martyrs brave enough to die for the cause of working class emancipation. Indeed, the anarchist’s trial and execution became, in the hands of working class preservationist, a passion play about the prophets who surrendered their lives for a world wide worker’s movement.”
March 28, 2007
You will never look at your working conditions the same again. Great read. Compelling, full of information. The whole thing comes alive. You will probably be angry when you put this book down, either because you agree with the author's reading of history, or because you don't. People died for an eight hour work day. Of course, what goes along with that is that people were willing to kill to prevent the eight hour work day.
May 2, 2014
This was a great read, full of valuable information about an under-appreciated time in American history. I have to warn you though (spoiler alert), this would not be considered by most to be a happy story. This is not something taught in history class because it makes you question everything you know about anarchy in America. I highly recommend this book because it gives an important and often unheard narrative about the battle between workers and capitalists that we still see today.
August 6, 2022
Moving to Chicago I wanted to get a lil grounding in the history and was eager to learn about this thing given all the things named after it, publisher, book store in Minneapolis etc, yet I hear like ZERO reference to it, even when i read lefty things that love to romanticize past defeats.
And for a while i remained confused cuz Honestly it starts out incredibly dramatic and fascinating, i felt like i was listening to the Revolutions Podcast. For 4 days starting May 1st (May Day baby!!) a corps of anarchist leaders, interracial Couple Albert and Lucy Parsons, and German Immigrant August Spies, lead like half the city on strike or the 8 hour day and its so crazy people are writing that they think there might be like an actual revolution like in the Paris Commune. Green does a great job conveying how much the city is convulsing with energy and possibility and and I was like oooh shit i mean this is the Haymarket bombing!! maybe theres gonna be like a literal battle!
But i guess like life usually is the real story is very anti climactic and sad. The workers are almost entirely non-violent for 4 days (unlike the cops who shoot and kill ppl) until someone randomly throws a bomb into a string of police, and suddenly public opinion turns on a dime, theres a huge show trial where all the anarchists leaders even ones who weren't there are charged with the bombing even tho no one could determine who had thrown it or that it had been planned. The leaders are all executed and in the subsequent red scare the labor movement is basically decapitated and destroyed until the 1930’s.
I mean fuck that sucks so bad. Green points out while America has never had really strong or revolutionary labor movement as compared to Europe, we have had the most crushing and draconian repression. which might point to why Haymarket has so little ongoing legacy here. They literally killed and imprisoned them all!
Fascinatingly tho Haymarket while being largely forgotten here, is like a huuge thing abroad, especially in southern europe and latin America, I think mostly for being the founding of May Day. But Green talks about a different Writer Dan la Botz who while traveling in a tin mining region in the mountains of bolivia in the 80’s sees a little house with a cloth banner in the window that you might see saying “God Bless america” but instead says “long live the martyrs of chicago”
the remote mountains of Bolivia! in the 80’s! crazy. But Hell yah Long live the Martyrs of Chicago!
And for a while i remained confused cuz Honestly it starts out incredibly dramatic and fascinating, i felt like i was listening to the Revolutions Podcast. For 4 days starting May 1st (May Day baby!!) a corps of anarchist leaders, interracial Couple Albert and Lucy Parsons, and German Immigrant August Spies, lead like half the city on strike or the 8 hour day and its so crazy people are writing that they think there might be like an actual revolution like in the Paris Commune. Green does a great job conveying how much the city is convulsing with energy and possibility and and I was like oooh shit i mean this is the Haymarket bombing!! maybe theres gonna be like a literal battle!
But i guess like life usually is the real story is very anti climactic and sad. The workers are almost entirely non-violent for 4 days (unlike the cops who shoot and kill ppl) until someone randomly throws a bomb into a string of police, and suddenly public opinion turns on a dime, theres a huge show trial where all the anarchists leaders even ones who weren't there are charged with the bombing even tho no one could determine who had thrown it or that it had been planned. The leaders are all executed and in the subsequent red scare the labor movement is basically decapitated and destroyed until the 1930’s.
I mean fuck that sucks so bad. Green points out while America has never had really strong or revolutionary labor movement as compared to Europe, we have had the most crushing and draconian repression. which might point to why Haymarket has so little ongoing legacy here. They literally killed and imprisoned them all!
Fascinatingly tho Haymarket while being largely forgotten here, is like a huuge thing abroad, especially in southern europe and latin America, I think mostly for being the founding of May Day. But Green talks about a different Writer Dan la Botz who while traveling in a tin mining region in the mountains of bolivia in the 80’s sees a little house with a cloth banner in the window that you might see saying “God Bless america” but instead says “long live the martyrs of chicago”
the remote mountains of Bolivia! in the 80’s! crazy. But Hell yah Long live the Martyrs of Chicago!
March 20, 2008
This is simply one of the most powerful, powerfully executed, georgeously written books I've read in a long time.
The Haymarket Affair is one of the great lost moments of American History.....now you don't have an excuse not to know about it.
The writing nails everything you could possibly want: the mood and atmosphere of late 19th Century Chicago, Gilded up and low down depending on what street you're on, unforgettable characters (the dashing and egalitarian August Spies, the charismatic, noble Albert Parsons, the flamboyant and gentle-spirited dandy Mayor Altgeld...not to mention the beautiful and unsinkable Lucy Parsons and the crackling, Dostoevskian Louis Lingg).
Everything here is all true, one of those small stories in History that get swept up with the bigger tides. The damn thing contains a perfect three act (maybe five act) play, and that's with no embellishment.
It's also a very moving and profound example of how America's promises are not always kept or even executed properly, adminstered sometimes with mob justice and media hysteria....sound familiar? The clash between labour and capital has pretty much petered out, at least in a overt way, since then, but the issues are always going to be with us.
The story of the trial is gripping- the image of Albert Parsons (a true american hero who they don't tell you about in school) giving his final speech for about four hours to an uncomprehending jury and ambivalent Chicago crowd only to collapse in his seat, hoarse and exhausted, is just priceless.
It's easy to read, pretty short, and very beautiful in the way that Shakespeare's tragedies are.
Anyone with an interest in American History (particularly the less-known kind), labour history, and radicalism has just GOT to read this.
Leaf through it, give it a good couple dozen minutes at a bookstore and you'll be glad you did.
I've sometimes hoped to write something as good about this whole situation someday.....maybe now, I might not have to.
May 2, 2024
Devastating, unnerving, deeply tragic…
August 1, 2012
Call me a sucker for books about Chicago, but I loved this book. It really explored every angle of what happened on that infamous day in history. Very well researched and reads very well and very quick.
June 13, 2025
people died for an 8 hour day. It is a point that is not often discussed. Using a broad brush to dismiss anything controversial is not a new tactic. It sent these men to the gallows. A vivid historical reminder of how frenzy is one of the most common political tools of social distraction.
March 8, 2011
Maybe it's because I was coming to the subject matter with such a complete lack of knowledge, but I found this book to be absolutely captivating and very educational. It's not just about the Haymarket incident - it's about the beginning of the labor movement in America and what life was like for average working people in Gilded Age Chicago. From the perch of history it's stunning to read about the hardships that people had to endure and the amount of blood that was shed in fighting for workplace rights that we take for granted today, like the eight hour workday. Other eye openers for me: The role of newspapers in spreading pro-capital and anti-labor sentiment, the fecklessness of the government in enforcing it's own labor laws, how police brutality was employed on behalf of industry leaders to keep workers in line, and the rampant xenophobia that demonized union activists as scary foreigners.
The middle part of the book does get a bit bogged down in the minutia of factional labor politics of the time, but besides that it is written like a page turner that will propel you through to the end. And in the end you will be both saddened and angered by the injustice done to the Haymarket eight.
The middle part of the book does get a bit bogged down in the minutia of factional labor politics of the time, but besides that it is written like a page turner that will propel you through to the end. And in the end you will be both saddened and angered by the injustice done to the Haymarket eight.
July 16, 2018
Informative, but dry. At times my eyes glossed over. It felt like I was reading a PhD dissertation; loaded with names and dates and meetings, the book could have used a bit more narrative hook.
Relevance is found on every page.
Relevance is found on every page.
April 27, 2015
Illustrates the perpetual struggle between employers and labor, a history of fits and starts, gains and setbacks that continues to the present day.
Chicago was a center of robust economic growth. During the 1860s, Chicago’s population doubled, largely from European immigration. Some of the immigrants were unskilled, from rural backgrounds, but others came with apprenticeships, experience, and some education behind them and were used to being treated with some respect for their crafts.* Other cultural differences provided sources of friction, or at least misunderstanding, between the natives and immigrants and between immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds.
Before 1860, what unions existed were craft-based. Before the Civil War a wider movement arose for a 10-hour workday, but the war put an end to normal working life. During the Civil War, profiteering employers kept wages low but employees who dared strike were excoriated for lack of patriotism. After the war ended, a movement again grew for an 8-hour workday with William Sylvis, the president of the Iron Molders Union, at the forefront. In 1867 a law passed in Illinois and was signed by Governor Richard Oglesby to make the legal workday eight hours. However, when large Chicago employers refused to obey the law, Oglesby did not enforce it despite strikes and unrest. Employers, with the help of the police, outlasted the economically vulnerable workers and the 10-hour day prevailed. A similar law applying to some federal employees in 1868 also went unenforced.
The cycle continued through economic growth, the Chicago Fire, and financial panics. If workers made gains, employers united to resist them, firing workers and slashing wages, and desperate workers were forced to return to work for lower wages and in worse conditions than before. Divisiveness among different labor groups also prevented the unity necessary for a successful across-the-board strike. Meanwhile, factory owners embraced mechanization to lessen their dependence on skilled workers
Despite the depressed conditions, lack of work, low wages, and homelessness, immigrants continued to arrive. Workers gathered in social halls for recreation, education, and support. When employers hired private police, immigrants armed themselves for self-defense. Labor leaders, through public speeches and newspapers published by and for the ethnic communities, continued to try to rally support. City leaders were well aware of the discontent of the suffering workers but did nothing, though they knew that one event could spark a huge revolt.
On Saturday, May 1, 1886, a large and growing strike for the 8-hour day began. By Monday, some employers had agreed to negotiate terms with employees. Then the railway strike was broken, and people were killed in a confrontation at the McCormick plant between strikers, scabs, and police. Freight handlers, lumber shovers, and Pullman workers threatened to strike. Employers hardened their positions and called for the militia. In response, a rally at the Haymarket was called to protest the actions of the police and to support the 8-hour movement. Mayor Harrison observed the rally and concluded that it was unlikely to result in violence.
Louis Lingg was known to have made bombs, but it may never be known conclusively who was responsible for the Haymarket bomb. Though some of the activists who were arrested had made incendiary statements in the past, the rally was breaking up and not all of them were even present when the bomb was thrown. Most of the socialists believed that the struggle would be a long one and that individual acts of violence would hinder rather than help the cause. Despite the label of anarchists, the labor activists were not in favor of chaos and disorder. Rather, their definition of anarchy was that the production of goods would be accomplished by groups of people who were self-governed—more like cooperatives—rather than controlled by employers or governments.
The major Chicago newspapers’ reporting was heavily slanted in favor of the industrialists and the police. At the trial, wildly diverging accounts of the scene were presented. The judge was biased, the jury rigged, and the charge, that the men “abetted, encouraged, and advised” a conspiracy to throw a bomb made them guilty of murder, not supported by the law. After appeals and efforts to obtain clemency for the six men, the sentences of two were commuted to life imprisonment and four were hanged on November 11, 1887. Their martyrdom inspired Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, and others.
In the early 1890s, Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned and released the three remaining anarchists on the basis that they had not had a fair trial. Labor troubles were not over, however. An 1894 strike against Pullman spread until quelled by 15,000 army soldiers, but not before hundreds had been wounded and at least 34 killed in the clash. This strike raised Eugene Debs and democratic socialism to prominence. Massive strikes continued, in Chicago and across the country. Other events, such as the conviction and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, reminded the public of the Haymarket affair. The 8-hour workday was finally mandated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
The book was certainly interesting for its coverage of the subject matter and its portraits of the labor activists, especially Albert and Lucy Parsons and August Spies. The chronological organization doesn’t make for the most dramatic presentation, though. I found some stretches a bit plodding. I also would have found it helpful to have a chapter tracing the various labor organizations, how they grew, and how they differed; reading about them chronologically, I tended to get them confused, since their names aren’t distinctive, at least to a casual reader. Why, for example, could they not unite to make gains when they came so close several times? The answer is probably there, but dispersed.
Our group had a lively discussion, touching on freedom of speech (inflammatory language on both sides), the out-of-control, even illegal actions of the police (illegal searches and seizures), and the differences between the anarchists, whose goal was control by groups with no overarching state, and the socialists, who wanted government control, but more equitable division. We also wondered, with increasing inequality, demographic changes, and automation continuing to replace workers, how close today’s pot is to boiling over.
*Between 1850 and 1920, the foreign-born population was as high as 50 percent and barely dropped below 30 percent. [http://www.demographicchartbook.com/C...] A source Green cites, which I don’t have at hand, counted a much higher percentage of foreign-born.
Chicago was a center of robust economic growth. During the 1860s, Chicago’s population doubled, largely from European immigration. Some of the immigrants were unskilled, from rural backgrounds, but others came with apprenticeships, experience, and some education behind them and were used to being treated with some respect for their crafts.* Other cultural differences provided sources of friction, or at least misunderstanding, between the natives and immigrants and between immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds.
Before 1860, what unions existed were craft-based. Before the Civil War a wider movement arose for a 10-hour workday, but the war put an end to normal working life. During the Civil War, profiteering employers kept wages low but employees who dared strike were excoriated for lack of patriotism. After the war ended, a movement again grew for an 8-hour workday with William Sylvis, the president of the Iron Molders Union, at the forefront. In 1867 a law passed in Illinois and was signed by Governor Richard Oglesby to make the legal workday eight hours. However, when large Chicago employers refused to obey the law, Oglesby did not enforce it despite strikes and unrest. Employers, with the help of the police, outlasted the economically vulnerable workers and the 10-hour day prevailed. A similar law applying to some federal employees in 1868 also went unenforced.
The cycle continued through economic growth, the Chicago Fire, and financial panics. If workers made gains, employers united to resist them, firing workers and slashing wages, and desperate workers were forced to return to work for lower wages and in worse conditions than before. Divisiveness among different labor groups also prevented the unity necessary for a successful across-the-board strike. Meanwhile, factory owners embraced mechanization to lessen their dependence on skilled workers
Despite the depressed conditions, lack of work, low wages, and homelessness, immigrants continued to arrive. Workers gathered in social halls for recreation, education, and support. When employers hired private police, immigrants armed themselves for self-defense. Labor leaders, through public speeches and newspapers published by and for the ethnic communities, continued to try to rally support. City leaders were well aware of the discontent of the suffering workers but did nothing, though they knew that one event could spark a huge revolt.
On Saturday, May 1, 1886, a large and growing strike for the 8-hour day began. By Monday, some employers had agreed to negotiate terms with employees. Then the railway strike was broken, and people were killed in a confrontation at the McCormick plant between strikers, scabs, and police. Freight handlers, lumber shovers, and Pullman workers threatened to strike. Employers hardened their positions and called for the militia. In response, a rally at the Haymarket was called to protest the actions of the police and to support the 8-hour movement. Mayor Harrison observed the rally and concluded that it was unlikely to result in violence.
Louis Lingg was known to have made bombs, but it may never be known conclusively who was responsible for the Haymarket bomb. Though some of the activists who were arrested had made incendiary statements in the past, the rally was breaking up and not all of them were even present when the bomb was thrown. Most of the socialists believed that the struggle would be a long one and that individual acts of violence would hinder rather than help the cause. Despite the label of anarchists, the labor activists were not in favor of chaos and disorder. Rather, their definition of anarchy was that the production of goods would be accomplished by groups of people who were self-governed—more like cooperatives—rather than controlled by employers or governments.
The major Chicago newspapers’ reporting was heavily slanted in favor of the industrialists and the police. At the trial, wildly diverging accounts of the scene were presented. The judge was biased, the jury rigged, and the charge, that the men “abetted, encouraged, and advised” a conspiracy to throw a bomb made them guilty of murder, not supported by the law. After appeals and efforts to obtain clemency for the six men, the sentences of two were commuted to life imprisonment and four were hanged on November 11, 1887. Their martyrdom inspired Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, and others.
In the early 1890s, Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned and released the three remaining anarchists on the basis that they had not had a fair trial. Labor troubles were not over, however. An 1894 strike against Pullman spread until quelled by 15,000 army soldiers, but not before hundreds had been wounded and at least 34 killed in the clash. This strike raised Eugene Debs and democratic socialism to prominence. Massive strikes continued, in Chicago and across the country. Other events, such as the conviction and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, reminded the public of the Haymarket affair. The 8-hour workday was finally mandated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
The book was certainly interesting for its coverage of the subject matter and its portraits of the labor activists, especially Albert and Lucy Parsons and August Spies. The chronological organization doesn’t make for the most dramatic presentation, though. I found some stretches a bit plodding. I also would have found it helpful to have a chapter tracing the various labor organizations, how they grew, and how they differed; reading about them chronologically, I tended to get them confused, since their names aren’t distinctive, at least to a casual reader. Why, for example, could they not unite to make gains when they came so close several times? The answer is probably there, but dispersed.
Our group had a lively discussion, touching on freedom of speech (inflammatory language on both sides), the out-of-control, even illegal actions of the police (illegal searches and seizures), and the differences between the anarchists, whose goal was control by groups with no overarching state, and the socialists, who wanted government control, but more equitable division. We also wondered, with increasing inequality, demographic changes, and automation continuing to replace workers, how close today’s pot is to boiling over.
*Between 1850 and 1920, the foreign-born population was as high as 50 percent and barely dropped below 30 percent. [http://www.demographicchartbook.com/C...] A source Green cites, which I don’t have at hand, counted a much higher percentage of foreign-born.
January 9, 2022
A deeply engrossing book that hits on some of my favorite themes: working class labor militancy, immigration and assimilation, socialist and revolutionary organizing, and police brutality, all themes that feel very relevant today.
May 29, 2018
A very educational book. I didn't know much about the events leading up to the Haymarket, or what happened after it, but I do enjoy my eight hour workday.
September 2, 2024
honestly this was really long and tough to read so it’s more of a 3.5 but! it was good.
March 22, 2018
I'm trying to catch up on my knowledge of labor history. This is such an important story, was just a little hard to get into.
May 9, 2017
"I am an innocent man, and the world knows I am innocent. If I am to be executed at all it is because I am an Anarchist not because I am a murderer; it is because of what I have taught and spoken and written in the past, and not because of the throwing of the Haymarket bomb."
Such were the words of Albert Parsons as he awaited death, convicted of the killing of several police officers that violently attacked a peaceful rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886. His words would later be validated by Governor of Illinois John Altgeld, who would pardon the eight men convicted of the Haymarket bombing, yet only after five of them were executed.
James R. Green relates the story of the Haymarket bombing in a fantastically detailed and moving work. Starting with the history of the movement for the eight hour day, Green traces with an even pace and often mournful tone the events that led to the execution of a group of innocent labor leaders. The structure of the book is wonderful, following a clear, readable, and highly engaging sequence. The events are easily traceable throughout. Green handles the large cast of characters deftly, and one of his strengths is working out the relationships between large forces; he clearly describes the ease with which Chicago's elite manipulated government policy and police involvement. But what is best about the book is Green's emotion. Writing equally with solemnity and pathos, he becomes a voice for the suppressed, murdered, and all but forgotten heroes of the labor movement. I can see, seething below his drive for objectivity, how greatly he is moved by the indignities and outrages suffered upon the labor organizers and their loved ones with which he is concerned. This is history, yes, but it is also humanity. Green has written in this work something which should be read by everyone wishing to know the real America.
Such were the words of Albert Parsons as he awaited death, convicted of the killing of several police officers that violently attacked a peaceful rally at Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886. His words would later be validated by Governor of Illinois John Altgeld, who would pardon the eight men convicted of the Haymarket bombing, yet only after five of them were executed.
James R. Green relates the story of the Haymarket bombing in a fantastically detailed and moving work. Starting with the history of the movement for the eight hour day, Green traces with an even pace and often mournful tone the events that led to the execution of a group of innocent labor leaders. The structure of the book is wonderful, following a clear, readable, and highly engaging sequence. The events are easily traceable throughout. Green handles the large cast of characters deftly, and one of his strengths is working out the relationships between large forces; he clearly describes the ease with which Chicago's elite manipulated government policy and police involvement. But what is best about the book is Green's emotion. Writing equally with solemnity and pathos, he becomes a voice for the suppressed, murdered, and all but forgotten heroes of the labor movement. I can see, seething below his drive for objectivity, how greatly he is moved by the indignities and outrages suffered upon the labor organizers and their loved ones with which he is concerned. This is history, yes, but it is also humanity. Green has written in this work something which should be read by everyone wishing to know the real America.
August 3, 2017
Haymarket. If you're a student of Anarchism it has meaning. Here we have a prime example of the United States organizing -not against murder- but IDEAS. James Green lays it out in this marvelous little book, the agents of Capital aligned to crush what we now hold sacred - the eight hour day.
This is what it's about, people. There were human beings who fought and DIED so we can work less, so we can enjoy our weekends. It was a battle. The Capitalists brought guns and used them. They tried to break up strikes with bullets. The anarchists, socialists, and communists would not back down. Who won? Well, you're not working a 12 hour day...chalk that one up for the radicals.
But a lot of people died in the process: August Spies, Albert Parsons, eloquent speakers for the cause and inadvertent martyrs. The United States gov't killed them for doing nothing more than talking. They did nothing more than encourage people to seize their rights, and that Capital impinged upon those rights.
It's important to understand that the United States is not perfect, that it's as broken and damaged as anything human beings make. To me 'Death in the Haymarket' exposes our weaknesses as a country. We're not a 'City on a Hill,' we're just a city...
Be good to the people that live here. Be just.
This is what it's about, people. There were human beings who fought and DIED so we can work less, so we can enjoy our weekends. It was a battle. The Capitalists brought guns and used them. They tried to break up strikes with bullets. The anarchists, socialists, and communists would not back down. Who won? Well, you're not working a 12 hour day...chalk that one up for the radicals.
But a lot of people died in the process: August Spies, Albert Parsons, eloquent speakers for the cause and inadvertent martyrs. The United States gov't killed them for doing nothing more than talking. They did nothing more than encourage people to seize their rights, and that Capital impinged upon those rights.
It's important to understand that the United States is not perfect, that it's as broken and damaged as anything human beings make. To me 'Death in the Haymarket' exposes our weaknesses as a country. We're not a 'City on a Hill,' we're just a city...
Be good to the people that live here. Be just.
February 12, 2012
A 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.
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.
August 24, 2014
The tragic story of a fight for justice, overpowered by greed and indifference. Haymarket was a labor rally, not something that should have erupted into violence. But it did, from an anarchist's bomb. The result: four men were hung, and they were almost certainly innocent. Not America's finest moment.
Today, the labor movement is largely forgotten; robber baron greed and indifference replaced by CEO arrogance and lack of respect. Oh well.
This book was well researched and documented; I felt that the author's statements were accurate and credible beyond the reasonable doubt that surrounds any historical analysis. The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller also covered similar territory, at a somewhat later period of time, and these two books complimented each other well.
Today, the labor movement is largely forgotten; robber baron greed and indifference replaced by CEO arrogance and lack of respect. Oh well.
This book was well researched and documented; I felt that the author's statements were accurate and credible beyond the reasonable doubt that surrounds any historical analysis. The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller also covered similar territory, at a somewhat later period of time, and these two books complimented each other well.
November 29, 2007
This book talked about the start of unions particularly focusing on Chicago and the strikes and rallys for the 8 hr work day. The bombing itself and the trial were just crazy and it is horrible to know that in our country people were sentenced to death for what they said and not what they did. Great book.
June 9, 2008
Fantastic. I learned so much, and have been lecturing people all over town about the labor movement. Amazingly written- I spent the last several chapters so upset you'd think I was reading a novel.
August 14, 2016
Powerfully written history of an important moment in U.S. labor movement -- and the frame-up and unjust execution of the Haymarket martyrs.
September 10, 2023
James Green's book is the freshest take on the most notorious terrorist case of the American Gilded Age, a fit companion to Paul Avrich's earlier "Haymarket Tragedy." Although there are no new revelations here, it does assemble the necessary details of context and people to give the general reader an in-depth understanding of the case and its ramifications.
Since then the Haymarket defendants were overshadowed by the second "Chicago Eight" of Rubin, Hoffman, and Dellinger, also tried as riot conspirators at the Democratic National Convention of 1968. But the first generation of 1886 doubtless inspired Vietnam-era protestors, police, and judiciary to assume their proper roles. The anarchist movement in Chicago, chiefly confined to German and Czech immigrants, had attached itself to the Eight-Hour labor struggle as later Yippies would act in the name of anti-war resistance.
Unlike their ideological descendants, the first set were convicted of conspiracy to throw the bomb which killed several policemen outright. As in '68, the action at Haymarket was also essentially a police-provoked "riot" against years of police brutality. But four of these were actually hanged, while a fifth died in prison under grisly and unexplained circumstances (murder or suicide, the verdict still open with no solid evidence either way.)
The print media, legal, and business establishment whipped up a "red scare" as vicious as anything in WW I or the cold war. Again, the crackdown response of 1886 laid the groundwork for later persecutions. The actual bombthrower was never established. State prosecutors blamed an escaped fugitive, tying him to other defendants in his group and then to anarchist "agitators" present on the scene of violence. The only evidence produced in court was suspect testimony of alleged eyewitnesses, the spoken agitation by the defendants, and bomb fragments alleged to have been manufactured by one. There were no confessions, no betrayals, nothing to prove that any of those charged had any part in the actual crime. Their identity was enough for conviction.
This led at the time to speculation that it was an undercover agent who did it to give the state a murder case. Later historians, like Avrich and Green, disagree. While police and prosecutors hyped the tragedy, even inventing false groups, the direct murder of policemen was too much for even the most hardened provocateur. But all do concur that the fugitive suspect was not guilty, that there was no conspiracy, and that eight innocent men were sentenced to prison or death. Revenge and bloodshed were in the air and scapegoats must be found, newspapers sold, reputations made.
As we approach yet another 9/11 anniversary, this story is a warning that "wars on terror" do more harm than good. The anarchists of Chicago were not the only protagonists who trampled the law to get their way in 1886, just the most expendable. (The idea that a standing president of the US could be guilty of abetting violent insurrection was too much even for the most rabid reporter or prosecutor of the 1880s.)
Haymarket's legacy has persisted. May First as an international labor day originated here. May Fourth, as a day of radical protest resulting in violence, lingered in China and at Kent State; as the date of execution - November 11, 1887 - was commemorated in socialist circles well into the 20th century. The German Social Democrats choosing that date for their 1918 armistice was no coincidence.
Green's study is thus no nostalgia piece, but still essential for studying the continuing fractures of American society; illuminating how fragile legal protections are when they get in the way of vengeful power.
Since then the Haymarket defendants were overshadowed by the second "Chicago Eight" of Rubin, Hoffman, and Dellinger, also tried as riot conspirators at the Democratic National Convention of 1968. But the first generation of 1886 doubtless inspired Vietnam-era protestors, police, and judiciary to assume their proper roles. The anarchist movement in Chicago, chiefly confined to German and Czech immigrants, had attached itself to the Eight-Hour labor struggle as later Yippies would act in the name of anti-war resistance.
Unlike their ideological descendants, the first set were convicted of conspiracy to throw the bomb which killed several policemen outright. As in '68, the action at Haymarket was also essentially a police-provoked "riot" against years of police brutality. But four of these were actually hanged, while a fifth died in prison under grisly and unexplained circumstances (murder or suicide, the verdict still open with no solid evidence either way.)
The print media, legal, and business establishment whipped up a "red scare" as vicious as anything in WW I or the cold war. Again, the crackdown response of 1886 laid the groundwork for later persecutions. The actual bombthrower was never established. State prosecutors blamed an escaped fugitive, tying him to other defendants in his group and then to anarchist "agitators" present on the scene of violence. The only evidence produced in court was suspect testimony of alleged eyewitnesses, the spoken agitation by the defendants, and bomb fragments alleged to have been manufactured by one. There were no confessions, no betrayals, nothing to prove that any of those charged had any part in the actual crime. Their identity was enough for conviction.
This led at the time to speculation that it was an undercover agent who did it to give the state a murder case. Later historians, like Avrich and Green, disagree. While police and prosecutors hyped the tragedy, even inventing false groups, the direct murder of policemen was too much for even the most hardened provocateur. But all do concur that the fugitive suspect was not guilty, that there was no conspiracy, and that eight innocent men were sentenced to prison or death. Revenge and bloodshed were in the air and scapegoats must be found, newspapers sold, reputations made.
As we approach yet another 9/11 anniversary, this story is a warning that "wars on terror" do more harm than good. The anarchists of Chicago were not the only protagonists who trampled the law to get their way in 1886, just the most expendable. (The idea that a standing president of the US could be guilty of abetting violent insurrection was too much even for the most rabid reporter or prosecutor of the 1880s.)
Haymarket's legacy has persisted. May First as an international labor day originated here. May Fourth, as a day of radical protest resulting in violence, lingered in China and at Kent State; as the date of execution - November 11, 1887 - was commemorated in socialist circles well into the 20th century. The German Social Democrats choosing that date for their 1918 armistice was no coincidence.
Green's study is thus no nostalgia piece, but still essential for studying the continuing fractures of American society; illuminating how fragile legal protections are when they get in the way of vengeful power.
February 15, 2022
James Green’s Death in the Haymarket is a narrative history that explores the cultural, social and personal elements that led up to the Haymarket bombing in 1886, the infamous trial, its controversial verdict, and the subsequent hanging of four anarchists. Green argues that the event was a historic turning point in American labor history. This event called into question the limitations of free speech, the underlining causes of violent conflict, the mistreatment of immigrants, and the fairness of the death penalty. For the author, "the Haymarket case challenged, like no other episode in the nineteenth century, the image of the United States as a classless society with liberty and justice for all" (p. 12).
Green illustrates the importance of the Haymarket Riot as a turning point in labor history with broader discussions on the relationship between politics and the rights of workers. For example, he points out the debate on political rights, like the freedom of speech, among workers/laborers formulated by the Haymarket Riot. Green demonstrates this through the number of testimonies (including from the well-liked Mayor Carter Harrison) and documents that proved that the men were well within their rights to speak on their injustices. Mayor Carter Harrison admitted in court, under the penalty of perjury, “that after listening to the speakers he told Chief Inspector Bonfield nothing dangerous seemed likely to occur and that he should send the police reserves home” (221). At the heart of this issue, Green is stressing that a cultural difference in work ethic existed among capitalists and laborers that ultimately defined the outcome of the case.
Although well researched, this book is not without flaws. For one, Green’s Chicago is split into two opposing sides with no middle ground: the elites and the working-class. While I am not an expert in social labor history, surely it was more complex than that. What about the middle-class? What was their role in this? What of the businessmen who were sympathetic to the cause and applied the eight hour work day for their workers? What also of the elites who were not businessmen who sympathized with the working-class cause? Another critique is that Green seems to over exaggerate working-class solidarity. Despite the fact that there was hatred towards the elite, it did not always transcend the gender, racial, religious, ethnic and neighborhood-based division that was prevalent in Chicago.
One last major shortcoming of Green is the lack of attention of Christian leaders’ popularization of gospel of wealth preaching. While he briefly mentions preachers like Dwight L. Moody and Dr. Hiram W. Thomas (166), he doesn’t expand on the impact such wealth preachers had on shaping American middle-class perceptions of labor. This is surprising, as this style of preaching often placed men like Andrew Carnegie in ranks with other holy and successful peoples. For example, Carnegie was seen as a man who was blessed and favored by The Almighty on account of his accumulation of wealth. He was a humble immigrant who worked hard and was able to amass a fortune by means of strict, consistent hard work. The middle-class, the preachers proclaimed, could too be like Carnegie if they not only applied themselves but accepted the work conditions (no matter how disastrous they may be) as predestined by God. It is a bit disappointing that Green left this out; even Mark Twain would poke fun at the hypocriticalness of such gospel of wealth preachers.
Green illustrates the importance of the Haymarket Riot as a turning point in labor history with broader discussions on the relationship between politics and the rights of workers. For example, he points out the debate on political rights, like the freedom of speech, among workers/laborers formulated by the Haymarket Riot. Green demonstrates this through the number of testimonies (including from the well-liked Mayor Carter Harrison) and documents that proved that the men were well within their rights to speak on their injustices. Mayor Carter Harrison admitted in court, under the penalty of perjury, “that after listening to the speakers he told Chief Inspector Bonfield nothing dangerous seemed likely to occur and that he should send the police reserves home” (221). At the heart of this issue, Green is stressing that a cultural difference in work ethic existed among capitalists and laborers that ultimately defined the outcome of the case.
Although well researched, this book is not without flaws. For one, Green’s Chicago is split into two opposing sides with no middle ground: the elites and the working-class. While I am not an expert in social labor history, surely it was more complex than that. What about the middle-class? What was their role in this? What of the businessmen who were sympathetic to the cause and applied the eight hour work day for their workers? What also of the elites who were not businessmen who sympathized with the working-class cause? Another critique is that Green seems to over exaggerate working-class solidarity. Despite the fact that there was hatred towards the elite, it did not always transcend the gender, racial, religious, ethnic and neighborhood-based division that was prevalent in Chicago.
One last major shortcoming of Green is the lack of attention of Christian leaders’ popularization of gospel of wealth preaching. While he briefly mentions preachers like Dwight L. Moody and Dr. Hiram W. Thomas (166), he doesn’t expand on the impact such wealth preachers had on shaping American middle-class perceptions of labor. This is surprising, as this style of preaching often placed men like Andrew Carnegie in ranks with other holy and successful peoples. For example, Carnegie was seen as a man who was blessed and favored by The Almighty on account of his accumulation of wealth. He was a humble immigrant who worked hard and was able to amass a fortune by means of strict, consistent hard work. The middle-class, the preachers proclaimed, could too be like Carnegie if they not only applied themselves but accepted the work conditions (no matter how disastrous they may be) as predestined by God. It is a bit disappointing that Green left this out; even Mark Twain would poke fun at the hypocriticalness of such gospel of wealth preachers.
January 29, 2022
“My Sons," said the Father, "do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you? But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle.” -Aesop
This story explains why the corporate elite later forced anglicization/assimilation on European America. It does not explain how or when or what happened afterwards. It only sets the stage for why. It tells how a host of strong, independent communities, of Germans, Bohemians, Scands, Celts, Jews, joined together to resist elitist oppression. Communities impervious to corporate propaganda because they, despite understanding English, they had their own language newspapers that could tell them the truth. Communities whose children were not subject to indoctrination and institutionalization, because they had their own language schools managed and cared for solely by the people they affected. Communities devoted and indebted to America, but unwilling to be stripped of their culture and heritage.
It tells the story of why this became dangerous to the plutocracy that had originally intended to bring them to America, work them to death, and discard them, but realized following the events of the book, that they could not easily be discarded, and opted instead to break them.
It took two wars, mass internment of Germans and Italians, outlawing of non-English schools and newspapers, propaganda seeding prejudice against Europeans, but ultimately they succeeded. And the light has been out ever since. White America has become at once unified and divided- a deracinated, confused, and easily pliable people, emerging from an opaque past in almost total amnesia. This is the America we have today.
When in the 1960s, disparate peoples banded together across the country and, despite being hobbled and mutilated by social engineering, rose again against our demonic masters, they were taken apart and lobotomized for a second time- only much quicker, with hands that now knew what they were doing. Had studied and prepared with great care.
Skipping ahead to the present, following the legalization of psychological operations directed at the public, these elites, having understood the need to control and warp the American mind, have engineered a social fabric for the underclasses that can be described only as a hall of mirrors. Where the protesters and rioters are sanctioned and encouraged instead of massacred. Where men consider political discussion among their peers with fear and hesitancy. Where each man is so polarized and bewildered and sated with bread and circus that his hope of seeing reality as it truly exists and joining hands with his neighbors is almost nil.
But this book only leads us up to 1886. It is only the why. In this book you will find the catalyst for change that lead us to where we are today, and a vision of a greater America we might have had. An America worthy of its name.
This story explains why the corporate elite later forced anglicization/assimilation on European America. It does not explain how or when or what happened afterwards. It only sets the stage for why. It tells how a host of strong, independent communities, of Germans, Bohemians, Scands, Celts, Jews, joined together to resist elitist oppression. Communities impervious to corporate propaganda because they, despite understanding English, they had their own language newspapers that could tell them the truth. Communities whose children were not subject to indoctrination and institutionalization, because they had their own language schools managed and cared for solely by the people they affected. Communities devoted and indebted to America, but unwilling to be stripped of their culture and heritage.
It tells the story of why this became dangerous to the plutocracy that had originally intended to bring them to America, work them to death, and discard them, but realized following the events of the book, that they could not easily be discarded, and opted instead to break them.
It took two wars, mass internment of Germans and Italians, outlawing of non-English schools and newspapers, propaganda seeding prejudice against Europeans, but ultimately they succeeded. And the light has been out ever since. White America has become at once unified and divided- a deracinated, confused, and easily pliable people, emerging from an opaque past in almost total amnesia. This is the America we have today.
When in the 1960s, disparate peoples banded together across the country and, despite being hobbled and mutilated by social engineering, rose again against our demonic masters, they were taken apart and lobotomized for a second time- only much quicker, with hands that now knew what they were doing. Had studied and prepared with great care.
Skipping ahead to the present, following the legalization of psychological operations directed at the public, these elites, having understood the need to control and warp the American mind, have engineered a social fabric for the underclasses that can be described only as a hall of mirrors. Where the protesters and rioters are sanctioned and encouraged instead of massacred. Where men consider political discussion among their peers with fear and hesitancy. Where each man is so polarized and bewildered and sated with bread and circus that his hope of seeing reality as it truly exists and joining hands with his neighbors is almost nil.
But this book only leads us up to 1886. It is only the why. In this book you will find the catalyst for change that lead us to where we are today, and a vision of a greater America we might have had. An America worthy of its name.
January 1, 2023
A few hundred police are called to shut down what otherwise would have been a peaceful assembly in support of the eight hour work day. Someone throws a bomb into the police ranks. The police start shooting. Within a few minutes seven police officers are dead. Some from the bomb, some from their own friendly fire and some, perhaps, were shot by those in the assembly. Four demonstrators are killed. By the end of the year (1886) 8 individuals are arrested, tried and convicted in a court case that clearly was rigged from the beginning. 7 of the 8 are sentenced to death. One commits suicide. Two of them agree to beg for clemency and their sentence is commuted to life imprisonment. The other four refuse and are hung.
The author recounts this story by starting with the labor movement of the mid 19th century that led to the assembly. He then goes over the events of May 4, 1886 noted above. He finished by discussing the long term implications of the event.
Being a history major and a life-long Chicago area resident I was aware of the Haymarket tragedy. However I did not really know the story. This book filled in a great deal. The sad part about this story is that, although in some ways we have progressed, in other ways we are just as bad. The court case was simply a device that the powers that be used to get rid of people found annoying. Here over a hundred years later we still do the same thing, witness the obsession and legal threateninigs over the Donald Trump's taxes or Hunter Biden's laptop.
The author recounts this story by starting with the labor movement of the mid 19th century that led to the assembly. He then goes over the events of May 4, 1886 noted above. He finished by discussing the long term implications of the event.
Being a history major and a life-long Chicago area resident I was aware of the Haymarket tragedy. However I did not really know the story. This book filled in a great deal. The sad part about this story is that, although in some ways we have progressed, in other ways we are just as bad. The court case was simply a device that the powers that be used to get rid of people found annoying. Here over a hundred years later we still do the same thing, witness the obsession and legal threateninigs over the Donald Trump's taxes or Hunter Biden's laptop.
December 5, 2016
James’ Green’s Death in the Haymarket tells the tale of the Haymarket Affair. The introduction gives a peek into the morning of May 5, 1886, the day after the eponymous Haymarket Affair, a bombing that killed seven police officers. The first chapter begins after the death of Lincoln in 1865. We follow the labor movement in Chicago for the next twenty-one years, through massive change and upheaval. Chicago more than quadrupled in size during this time period, burned in 1871, and went through two depressions. Immigrants composed more than 40% of the population during this time, and the industrial revolution led to capitalization and massive changes in labor practices.
Death in the Haymarket contains a lot of startlingly relevant themes: police brutality, terrorism, income inequality, xenophobia, protests that sometimes contain violence, political corruption, and economic turmoil. Interpretations of the Haymarket Affair have swung wildly more than once since they occurred 130 years ago. The Haymarket bombing was the first red scare (at this time, referring to anarchists rather than communists); four men were hung for their connections to the event. Green presents a humanizing thought-provoking narrative that suggests his sympathy to the men of the 1880s labor movement, but gives the reader plenty of tools to come to other conclusions.
WHY THIS BOOK?
I didn’t know anything about the labor movement. I certainly like my 40 hour work week and my safe working conditions, but I didn’t know how they came about. Haymarket doesn’t get into those details, but it certainly demonstrates what a long and bloody fight it was.
Between criticisms of teachers unions, passage of right-to-work legislation, and the increase of anti-employee policies like contractor status and cuts to benefits, we are seeing the erosion of some accomplishments of the labor movement. I knew that people were once passionate about these issues. I wanted to step back into that time. Haymarket fulfilled this goal.
THE GOOD
There’s a lot of great stuff to say about Haymarket. It tackles a boatload of complicated topics in a modest 320 pages. It introduces compelling and exciting characters, heros and villains and a lot of in between. It practically follows a novelistic arc; we begin with the optimism of the post Civil War labor movement, followed by political engagement, the suppression of that engagement by monied interests, the radicalization of the movement, the tragedy of police brutalities and slaughters at protests, the retaliation through terrorism, closing with further suppression following the bombing, and regrouping.
Haymarket tells a story of humans through individuals; my favorites were Lucy and Albert Parsons. Albert was orphaned a young age, raised by an enslaved woman, and fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War at the age of 15. After the war, he went to Texas as a Republican enacting Reconstruction. There, he married Lucy, who appears and was believed to be African American; she always maintained that she was Native American. Albert worked for a printing press in Texas. Albert lost his job and faced violence numerous times fighting for the rights of freed slaves in Texas. Eventually, he moved to Chicago and fought for the rights of workers. He and Lucy became famed speakers. Lucy continued for over 50 years.
Haymarket tells a story of humans through the immigrant communities; Chicago in the late 1800s was second only to Prague in quantity of Bohemians. My great-grandfather came to this country from Bohemia in the early 1900s and became a coal miner in southern Illinois. These battles affected him. We know nothing of him other than the vague strokes of tragedy that made it to the public records; he was widowed, gave up his children around the time he was declared insane, and died shortly thereafter. Haymarket describes wage earners being slowly squeezed to death in a dehumanizing machine of class warfare. These were the vices that led men to face death for better working conditions.
Haymarket made me wonder how many families suffered tragedies like our family. It made me grateful for what I have today. It was a cautionary tale for how very far there is to fall.
THE BAD
Haymarket introduces a dizzying array of characters. I couldn’t keep track of them all. We meet politicians, police officers, German anarchists, American anarchists, various socialists, wives, rich men, judges, writers and more. Green creates such good characters, and I was annoyed to keep forgetting. A reference would have be really helpful.
Secondly, I found the early chapters spent in the 1860s and 1870s less interesting. They mostly didn’t contain the characters that occupied the later chapters. Although they were really helpful for context later on, they were slow for me.
Finally and most substantially, Green carefully tells how perception of the Haymarket Affair morphed with time, swinging back and forth a couple of times. But although Green is clear about his own contemporary feelings of the events, he does not give voice to other contemporaries. Is Green’s opinion the widely held one? If not, what faults does Green suggest in the evaluations of his contemporaries? We learn that the event is still fraught enough with symbolism that commemoration of the Haymarket Affair remains thorny today. But we also learn that the “Chicago Martyrs,” the men hung for the Haymarket Affair, are still remembered by laborers around the world. Part of understanding an argument is the refutation of counter-arguments; this is absent in Haymarket.
OVERALL
This is a solid, well-written book about a topic you probably don’t know well. As our country debates over the relationship between employer and employee, this glimpse into the past offers insight into today’s arguments. Haymarket is an exciting nonfiction read with a great set of characters and a strong sense of place.
Death in the Haymarket contains a lot of startlingly relevant themes: police brutality, terrorism, income inequality, xenophobia, protests that sometimes contain violence, political corruption, and economic turmoil. Interpretations of the Haymarket Affair have swung wildly more than once since they occurred 130 years ago. The Haymarket bombing was the first red scare (at this time, referring to anarchists rather than communists); four men were hung for their connections to the event. Green presents a humanizing thought-provoking narrative that suggests his sympathy to the men of the 1880s labor movement, but gives the reader plenty of tools to come to other conclusions.
WHY THIS BOOK?
I didn’t know anything about the labor movement. I certainly like my 40 hour work week and my safe working conditions, but I didn’t know how they came about. Haymarket doesn’t get into those details, but it certainly demonstrates what a long and bloody fight it was.
Between criticisms of teachers unions, passage of right-to-work legislation, and the increase of anti-employee policies like contractor status and cuts to benefits, we are seeing the erosion of some accomplishments of the labor movement. I knew that people were once passionate about these issues. I wanted to step back into that time. Haymarket fulfilled this goal.
THE GOOD
There’s a lot of great stuff to say about Haymarket. It tackles a boatload of complicated topics in a modest 320 pages. It introduces compelling and exciting characters, heros and villains and a lot of in between. It practically follows a novelistic arc; we begin with the optimism of the post Civil War labor movement, followed by political engagement, the suppression of that engagement by monied interests, the radicalization of the movement, the tragedy of police brutalities and slaughters at protests, the retaliation through terrorism, closing with further suppression following the bombing, and regrouping.
Haymarket tells a story of humans through individuals; my favorites were Lucy and Albert Parsons. Albert was orphaned a young age, raised by an enslaved woman, and fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War at the age of 15. After the war, he went to Texas as a Republican enacting Reconstruction. There, he married Lucy, who appears and was believed to be African American; she always maintained that she was Native American. Albert worked for a printing press in Texas. Albert lost his job and faced violence numerous times fighting for the rights of freed slaves in Texas. Eventually, he moved to Chicago and fought for the rights of workers. He and Lucy became famed speakers. Lucy continued for over 50 years.
Haymarket tells a story of humans through the immigrant communities; Chicago in the late 1800s was second only to Prague in quantity of Bohemians. My great-grandfather came to this country from Bohemia in the early 1900s and became a coal miner in southern Illinois. These battles affected him. We know nothing of him other than the vague strokes of tragedy that made it to the public records; he was widowed, gave up his children around the time he was declared insane, and died shortly thereafter. Haymarket describes wage earners being slowly squeezed to death in a dehumanizing machine of class warfare. These were the vices that led men to face death for better working conditions.
Haymarket made me wonder how many families suffered tragedies like our family. It made me grateful for what I have today. It was a cautionary tale for how very far there is to fall.
THE BAD
Haymarket introduces a dizzying array of characters. I couldn’t keep track of them all. We meet politicians, police officers, German anarchists, American anarchists, various socialists, wives, rich men, judges, writers and more. Green creates such good characters, and I was annoyed to keep forgetting. A reference would have be really helpful.
Secondly, I found the early chapters spent in the 1860s and 1870s less interesting. They mostly didn’t contain the characters that occupied the later chapters. Although they were really helpful for context later on, they were slow for me.
Finally and most substantially, Green carefully tells how perception of the Haymarket Affair morphed with time, swinging back and forth a couple of times. But although Green is clear about his own contemporary feelings of the events, he does not give voice to other contemporaries. Is Green’s opinion the widely held one? If not, what faults does Green suggest in the evaluations of his contemporaries? We learn that the event is still fraught enough with symbolism that commemoration of the Haymarket Affair remains thorny today. But we also learn that the “Chicago Martyrs,” the men hung for the Haymarket Affair, are still remembered by laborers around the world. Part of understanding an argument is the refutation of counter-arguments; this is absent in Haymarket.
OVERALL
This is a solid, well-written book about a topic you probably don’t know well. As our country debates over the relationship between employer and employee, this glimpse into the past offers insight into today’s arguments. Haymarket is an exciting nonfiction read with a great set of characters and a strong sense of place.
September 20, 2017
Ok, it started off kind of slow but I find it fascinating that strikes for an 8hr work day and livable wages was considered radical. And the trial...such judicial injustice, not uncommon during this era but still despicable nonetheless. My favorite kind of history is the kind people don't teach, whether it's because it's an embarrassment or because it's frowned upon.
"This republic has killed five men for their opinions"
"The misguiding and corrupting influence of prejudice and class hatred"
"If men's lives can be taken in this way, better anarchy, better to be without law, than with any such law"
"I am an innocent man and the world knows I am innocent. If I am to be executed at all it is because I am an anarchist not because I am a murderer; it is because of what I have taught and spoken and written in the past, and not because of the throwing of the Haymarket bomb"
"The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today"
"If that had been a law during the anti-slavery agitation all of us abolitionists would have been hanged a long time ago"
"This republic has killed five men for their opinions"
"The misguiding and corrupting influence of prejudice and class hatred"
"If men's lives can be taken in this way, better anarchy, better to be without law, than with any such law"
"I am an innocent man and the world knows I am innocent. If I am to be executed at all it is because I am an anarchist not because I am a murderer; it is because of what I have taught and spoken and written in the past, and not because of the throwing of the Haymarket bomb"
"The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today"
"If that had been a law during the anti-slavery agitation all of us abolitionists would have been hanged a long time ago"
May 8, 2021
7 days ago I asked myself "Why is Mayday?" Of course, many things have happened on May 1st over the years. However, if you are talking about labor solidarity in America, you mean the Haymarket Affair, something I knew nothing about.
I found an episode of the Most Notorious! podcast by @Erik_Rivenes that covered #DeathintheHaymarket by the late historian and labor activist #JamesGreen.
#DeathintheHaymarket uncovers the history of Chicago labor organizing around the 8-hour-day in the Gilded Age, its fall after Haymarket, and its legacy. In particular, Green covers the court that convicted and hung Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and August Spies for their ideas without proving a link to the Haymarket bomber.
Green's historical exposition and analysis reflects his labor activism. However, he uses a great number of primary sources from the perspectives of capital, police, and labor while covering the Affair.
If you don't truly understand what people are celebrating on May Day and Labor Day, this book is worth your time.
I found an episode of the Most Notorious! podcast by @Erik_Rivenes that covered #DeathintheHaymarket by the late historian and labor activist #JamesGreen.
#DeathintheHaymarket uncovers the history of Chicago labor organizing around the 8-hour-day in the Gilded Age, its fall after Haymarket, and its legacy. In particular, Green covers the court that convicted and hung Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and August Spies for their ideas without proving a link to the Haymarket bomber.
Green's historical exposition and analysis reflects his labor activism. However, he uses a great number of primary sources from the perspectives of capital, police, and labor while covering the Affair.
If you don't truly understand what people are celebrating on May Day and Labor Day, this book is worth your time.
May 24, 2020
Solid narrative history of the Haymarket Affair, a major setback in the brutal, little-known, decades-long battle for the 8-hour day. Not much in the way of original argument, synthesis, or analysis here, but it's a compelling read with some standout moments. Green published this at the peak of the War on Terror in 2006 and pointedly refuses to consider Haymarket as a moment in the history of terrorism, which I suspect is a politically motivated choice and a missed opportunity. Some new stuff I learned: I was surprised to learn that the Haymarket anarchists became legendary figures in left-wing movements outside the US while being almost totally forgotten in this country. The chapter on the execution is a standout (I had to put the book down at a couple of points ... it's extremely powerful) as is the epilogue on memory of the event. It's abundantly clear that there's no consensus on how to remember this event, especially after violence from radicals and police in the 1960s and '70s tore open all the old wounds. This story and all the other big Gilded Age strikes are worth revisiting as American workers are once again putting in longer hours for low pay and a new wave of automation is about to screw everyone over.
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