The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America

by Jack Kelly

The dramatic story of the explosive 1894 clash of industry, labor, and government that shook the nation and marked a turning point for America.

The Edge of Anarchy by Jack Kelly offers a vivid account of the greatest uprising of working people in American history. At the pinnacle of the Gilded Age, a boycott of Pullman sleeping cars by hundreds of thousands of railroad employees brought commerce to a standstill across much of the country. Famine threatened, riots broke out along the rail lines. Soon the U.S. Army was on the march and gunfire rang from the streets of major cities.

This epochal tale offers fascinating portraits of two iconic characters of the age. George Pullman, who amassed a fortune by making train travel a pleasure, thought the model town that he built for his workers would erase urban squalor. Eugene Debs, founder of the nation's first industrial union, was determined to wrench power away from the reigning plutocrats. The clash between the two men's conflicting ideals pushed the country to what the U.S. Attorney General called "the ragged edge of anarchy."

Many of the themes of The Edge of Anarchy could be taken from today's headlines--upheaval in America's industrial heartland, wage stagnation, breakneck technological change, and festering conflict over race, immigration, and inequality. With the country now in a New Gilded Age, this look back at the violent conflict of an earlier era offers illuminating perspectives along with a breathtaking story of a nation on the edge.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Labor, Politics, Historical, Business

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2019

About the author

Jack Kelly is an award-winning author and historian. He has published works of narrative nonfiction focusing on the Revolutionary War and early America.

Jack lives with the acclaimed artist Joy Taylor and a lovely, nondescript cat named Allis Chalmers, in New York's Hudson Valley. He writes mainly about the American Revolution and the early history of the nation. He’s always happy to hear from readers via his website JackKellyBooks.com.

Perhaps because of a background as the author of five crime novels, Jack writes nonfiction with the compulsive energy of thrillers. He has covered a range of fascinating historical personalities in his books GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD, VALCOUR, and BAND OF GIANTS. In honor of the 2025 bicentennial of the Erie Canal, his history HEAVEN’S DITCH gives an intriguing look at the excitement surrounding that major achievement.

In January 2026, Jack will publish TOM PAINE’S WAR. The book offers a compelling portrait of the man who was the voice of the American Revolution and who remains our most relevant founder. Paine’s Common Sense convinced Americans to declare independence. He went on to march with Washington’s army during the desperate struggle of 1776.

Jack has received the DAR History Medal and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not a big reader of nonfiction, but I love history and enjoy learning about an episode in history of which I was previously unaware. So, I was drawn to The Edge of Anarchy, which details the largest uprising of US workers. The 1890s were the height of the Gilded Age and like today, one of those periods when there was a large gulf between the haves and the have nots. In fact, the similarities between the two time periods is one of the things that drew me to the book. In 1893, the US economy suffered a crash and a following recession. Railroad manual job wages were cut to starvation levels.

The story concentrates on Eugene Debs, who had the idea of creating an industrial union for all members involved in the railroads, not individual unions for each specific job. On the opposite side was George Pullman. Pullman pulled himself up by his bootstraps, to use an old phrase. A creative business genius, he not only had new ideas for railroad cars, but also designed a town for his employees. But he was all about making money and didn’t care how many of his workers starved so long as is businesses were profitable. “Both Debs and Pullman were fighting for deeply held principles: community versus self-interest, cooperation versus competition, equality versus liberty. On this anniversary of independence, each felt that he was a patriot upholding the best of the American tradition.”

The depression also led to the creation of civilian armies, bands of the unemployed marching on DC. Their leaders actually had some ideas that FDR would later employ to help during the Great Depression. But Grover Cleveland was no FDR.

The book is well written and well researched. It moves at a brisk pace and kept my interest. I loved how Kelly lined all the dominoes up so we could watch them fall. The best historical nonfiction books make you feel part of the time and place. Kelly does just that.

I highly recommend this book to lovers of history. Fans of Candice Millard or Erik Larson will enjoy this.

My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

[Robert Jerome · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is a little misleading. The subtitle should be, "Eugene Debbs, The pullman company, and the strike of 1849," as the book focuses entirely on these topics. By focusing on one strike, the author was able to present the reader with a satisfyingly deep account of the facts involved and clearly illustrate why the events were such a watershed moment in US history. The book gives just enough background on the people, the industries, and the times to allow the reader to really understand the political forces and motivations of the times. This is a period in US history that was somewhat repressed when I was in school since it tends to make the capitalists look like bad guys. It is really enriching to learn about and I hope that it will come to be included in the future as we drift away from the anti-communist era.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid account of the American labor movement of 19th century's last (lost?) decade, pitting the two adversaries (the capitalist Pullman versus the principled-socialist Debs), and the ideals of American values (individualism and property rights versus solidary grounded in equality and mutual sympathy) against one another. We all know which side one.

The author does a good job detailing the undercurrents that led to the general strike –the collusion among the few major railroad companies squeezing the workers into the threshold of financial misery, the role of the growing influx of immigration, the role of a vociferous press, and the government's covert (and in some instances even open) support for the business interest.

I was surprised to find out how people did stand for one another, give passionate speeches, and take concrete political action (with marches to the capital and the like), even in the face of great odds. Today, people, aided by the social media and mass media outlets, seem to have fallen in deep slumber and given up on taking any principled stand, aside from empty and lofty rhetoric. Another observation is how the people of the era (even the businessmen) were not as uncouth as their counterparts of today. Pullman, although possibly for PR purposes had created a library, donating thousands of his books, in his 'model town'. Then again, it also does fit neatly with Pullman's "shrewd" sense of doing subtle PR, as he did with "helping the negro" by employing exclusively black men as porters – mostly leaving them rely on gratuities, then for wages next to nothing. Yes, just like in today's world of waiter/waitresses…

Unsurprisingly, one can find many similarities if one is to observe business-labor relations and compare them to today. The paternalism of the company towards its blue-collared workers, the stagnant pay, constant pressure to increase output, and their cultivation of politicians, all sound terribly familiar for present-day white-collared employees.

The only defect of the book lies in the fact that the 100 or so pages after the mid-point seems to be a relatively mundane and unnecessarily detailed account of every incident of the general strike, which should have been reserved for the footnotes.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is really a lot to this story that would affect the Nation for years to come. The strike started because the Pullman factory which made the Pullman railroad cars reduced wages to their workers in the factory. What they did not lower was the rent they paid, the cost for fuel to their homes or for food. You see what are fine schools do not teach any more is that before unions when you worked for some companies you also had to live at their housing and shop at their store, etc…. This of course was owned by the person who owned the company. Many people think it just happened in the mines but no it was throughout most businesses for a long period of time. The strike was about being fair if you cut our wages cut the other items as well. They said no. The author will take you through the strike and how it was handled on both sides’ right and wrong. The Attorney General the President Cleveland hand was a lawyer for the railroads just prior to taking the position so there was not a conflict of interest at all. The deaths that occurred started to cause some panic and that is when the Attorney General started having troops go along with the trains because he put mailbags in the Pullman cars. Clarence Darrow a fighter for the people and for the beginning of unions fought against the government and they did drop one charge but still charged the man main man with jail time. Overall a very good story about our history. The Pullman Company did last until 1950 and the homes just went into the Southside of Chicago. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well researched and written. The author has a writing style that makes the subject engaging and read less like a history rescitation and more like a story. The subtitle of "The Railroad Barons, The Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America" is an accurate description of the book although it focuses mostly on the Pullman strike. The two main individuals in the book are Eugene Debs and George Pullman and their vastly differrent approaches in trying to settle (or not settle) worker grievances against the Pullman companty. It clearly lays out how the railroads used the federal government under President Grover Cleveland to surpress an already overworked and underpaid constituency. 

I recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in railroad history or the beginning of the development of the labor union movement.

I received a free Kindle copy of The Edge of Anarchy by Jack Kelly courtesy of Net Galley  and St. Martins Press, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I am a fan of railroads and their history and I have not read a great deal about the subject of the book. This is the first book by the author that I have read.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn’t about what I expected (I thought it was going to be about the impact of the railroad on the settlement of the west), but I’m still happy that I read it. This book covers the events of the Pullman strike headed by Eugene Debbs. It’s an pivotal moment in US history that Is often times ignored.

[Malia Odekirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been craving some background in America’s labor union history and this book certainly taught me quite a bit! It was well-written, informative, and easy to get through. It’s far less easy to stomach how greedy people like George Pullman were and how this is still manifesting (ten-fold) in our current capitalist America. This book also prompted me to reflect on how dangerous labor strikes were at this time in history. Although they can still be dangerous, troves of people aren’t being gunned down for standing up for their rights now. I’m inspired by the resilience these railway workers (and others) demonstrated to pave the way for us now but disturbed at the inhumane responses they faced.

[Alismcg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Mark me as one of the 'unaware' ; I hadn't a clue.

My reading of Pynchon's "Against the Day" certainly would have been brought into focus and made a bit more of an impression, had I read this book first. Good read.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America is an interesting read. I give it three and a half stars.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read. Worthwhile investment of your time, particularly if you are interested in the Gilded Age of late 19th century America. A very detailed account of the Pullman Strike of 1894 and the two main protagonists- George Pullman and Eugene Debs. The largest labor strike in U.S. history, according to the author. The strikers didn’t win concessions but set the stage for important changes during the Progressive Era.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an admirable skill to digest the chaotic events of some particularly turbulent period of history and present them as a a coherent narrative that neither confuses nor bores the general reader. The social disruption sparked by the general economic collapse of the 1890s Depression was both general and widespread, and it marked the moment where the imbalance of power between the truly plutocratic robber barons and monopolists with their employees and their ineffectual trade unions pulled into sharp focus. The Pullman Strike in the early summer of 1894 was arguably the pivotal event that demolished the public's faith in the benevolence of the American system, defining the terms of the struggle between labor and capital that raged for the next half century, and Kelly does a remarkable job of gathering the scattered pieces of the emerging labor movement and putting them firmly in a context that makes them sensible and seemingly inevitable.
The star of Kelly's story is Eugene Debs, the reluctant militant who emerges from the Pullman Strike (and the incidental wreck of his young industrial union) a national figure with a growing conviction that government has an obligation to protect its citizens rather than get out of the way. This would lead to his running for president in five election cycles, and converted him into an apostle of socialism and reforms that would eventually be the backbone of the New Deal reforms of the next catastrophic economic downturn. Although Debs is the star, this is an event that makes radicals out of almost everyone. Grover Cleveland intervenes to make certain Debs is imprisoned, the once kindly and paternal George Pullman is almost instantly changed into a living caricature of an uncaring bloated capitalist parasite, and the docile and parochial trade workers that composed the workforce Pullman employed in 1893 became a united army of enraged and destructive strikers a year later. After 1894 it was much more difficult for the super rich of the era to present themselves as benevolent actors who cared for their workers and were acting in good faith, which is saying a lot about how particularly formative the Pullman Strike was given that the Haymarket and Homestead strikes were recent memories at the time. Something about this strike moved public opinion, and I suspect that the story Kelly doesn't tell about the strike, or rather the one that he hints at but passes by, explains why Pullman was such a turning point.
A great deal is made in the lead up to the strike about the terrible trap Pullman's workers found themselves in if they chose to live in his model community. By early 1894 it was impossible to afford to pay rent in a Pullman house if you worked in his factory, and as wages fell and workers fell into debt to their employer they found themselves trapped in their houses, unable to either quit or move out. While this is certainly a reason enough for discontent, the obvious parallel is to the sharecropper system that was key to re-enslaving the African-Americans of the South. It is harder to imagine or locate a stronger force for worker radicalization and solidarity in American history than the fear that the working class was being put on a level with the despised black worker. Kelly makes a point of finding evidence of Debs' own belief that a successful strike would have needed the support of the Pullman porters, and tactically that is an obvious point since they porters being on the job allowed the cars to keep rolling. But one does have to question if the astonishing solidarity and fervent devotion of the workers to pushing the strike forward would have been so marked if the porters had been participants with grievances of their own to be addressed.
Despite the eliding of most of the racial realities of the age, Kelly still makes a credible reporter of the strike, and one whose evidence based approach to the events clears most of the murk from this long obscure story.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book did a tremendous job covering the Pullman strike of 1894 and arguing that it was arguably the biggest labor uprising of the era.

I knew the early portions of the story - the Pullman company, his model town, and how/why his laborers went on strike in 1894. I was less familiar with the Debs portion of the story, but Kelly really brings that to life. Early on he has a chapter discussing how Debs was able to beat the Great Northern Railroad, which established the ARU in the nation. Pullman workers were eligible for membership in the ARU, which is how the local Chicago strike began nationalized. Throughout the strike, Debs was aware of the dangers the strike posed the still not yet secure union, but the problems of the Pullman workers convinced him that something had to be done.

Once the ARU got involved, seemingly the entire rest of the story is one of escalation. The ARU refused to move Pullman cars, making the local strike a national affair. But an association of railway men saw in this strike an opportunity to break the new union. They put their full weight behind Pullman. Throughout, Pullman insisted that he nothing to negotiate - the men walked off their jobs, therefore were no longer employees. So why negotiate? Many other railway men thought he was thickheaded, but they were going to back him no matter what. They saw to it that if Pullman cars didn't move, nothing would move.

So for a bit, nothing moved. Pullman and others were stunned at how much support the ARU had among workers and the public at large. Pullman assumed that any sympathy action for his company's striking workers would be modest and soon peter out, but instead there was the threat of shortages of supplies across the country as the strike deepened. Debs worried about this turning the public against the strikers, but plenty still supported them.

The real key turning point wasn't public opinion - it was the opinion of government. Grover Cleveland was president and a firm supporter of business. Perhaps the most consequential decision of his presidency was to make Richard Olney his attorney general. Olney was not only a lawyer for railroad companies before becoming attorney general, but he got an agreement that he could still do some business if he served as attorney general. Olney sided as heavily with companies and against Debs's union as possible. He helped the companies create a very strong injunction against the workers' refusal to move the Pullman cars. Jack Kelly notes that up until now, injunctions had been used rather sparingly in labor disputes, but this was full-throated involvement by the courts: an omnibus injunction. Kelly writes than an injunction criminalizes action that would ordinarily be legal, and I've never thought of it in those terms - but, yeah, that's what they do. Olney also helped concoct the plan to attach rail cars with the federal mail to Pullman cars, and arrest people if they didn't move the mail. Until now, workers had made sure to deliver the mail, but now railway companies made sure to always attach mail cars to Pullman cars. Olney convinced Cleveland to send in the troops (not that it was so hard to convince Cleveland of that). They sent troops to Illinois despite the governor never requesting them. This was new. Until now, troops had only been involved in labor disputes at the request of governors. It was done dispute minimal violence so far - but was justified by the supposed violence. Instead of calming the situation, the arrival of troops inflamed things. This is when rioting started in earnest. Gen. Miles in Chicago played it up dramatically, and things kept escalating further. 32 would die before it was all over. Cleveland's administration essentially ended all pretense of being neutral as it openly began siding with the railroads to break the strike.

Debs and the ARU had one card to play: a general strike. If laborers across society went out, that could outflank the railroad companies. (I'm not fully clear if it was just in Chicago or across the nation, but I believe it was intended to be national). This would be one final escalation - would be, if it happened. Things fell out of control before that could occur. Too much violence & federal intervention. Too strong a line by the government against the strike. And Samuel Gompers of the AFL was willing to voice support for the ARU, but was slow walking any move to a general strike. By the time the big meeting to ask for a general strike occurred, Debs realized it was over and didn't make a serious push for one. But for a week or so, there was serious talk of it.

Debs went to jail for violating the injunction, and came out a socialist, which he remained the rest of his days. Pullman won the battle, but the fight clearly wore on him, as he became more irretiable than ever and frequently suffered serious headaches. He soon died.

My reading of the situation: Grover Cleveland's 2nd term in the White House is a historic missed opportunity. His heavy support for business & Olney helped doom the labor movement for a generation - it never gained this level of momentum until the Great Depression. Could the strike have won if Cleveland's administration hadn't put their thumb so heavily on the scale? We'll never know, but it's obvious that the actions by Cleveland, Olney, & Miles were crucial in breaking it. You know what? The difference between the 1890s and the 1930s might just be Cleveland and FDR. One saw the problems of the day as a reason to try something new while the other saw the problems of the day as a reason to beat down those who wanted to change things. That's not totally fair and there were other differences (the recession began shortly after Cleveland became president while FDR came to power four years after the Depression began), but Cleveland's narrowly pro-business attitude brings up the question, "What might have been?"

Anyhow, it's a really good book. There is one dumb error near the end (Kelly says that after Cleveland, the Dems never controlled Congress & the White House at the same time again until 1910. Er, does he mean 1912?) But Kelly does a great job on the central stuff.

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little bit of a slog towards the end just because of the tangled connections of all the different groups that got involved in the strike against George Pullman's company in 1894. Much of this sounds so familiar today (which the author mentions in summing up the whole mess) as it recalls labor troubles of the late 20th century and the income disparity that exists today. I have always had conflicted feelings about labor unions: they shouldn't be necessary but unfortunately are, since not all humans are good at sharing the wealth (quite literally). George Pullman may have meant well in building his model town for his employees, but he had a huge blind spot that became evident when his employees were actually starving while he personally continued to rake in huge profit from the company. This strike took place over 100 years ago but sadly, these problems are still with us today.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

My one-star is more of a personal review—this might be a great book for someone but it wasn’t for me at all. I thought it would make me interested in the topic but instead I just found it to be quite the drudgery to get through. I should have just considered it a dnf but for some reason I didn’t.

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and entertaining account of the Pullman Strike or Pullman Crisis of 1894 as well as several related topics. The heart of the book is largely the saga of what was really two strikes that occurred in 1894, first the strike that was 4,000 Pullman Company employees in Chicago, Illinois that walked off their job on May 11, 1894 in response to being squeezed by both a reduction in pay and no corresponding reduction in rent in their homes in the Pullman company town they lived in (or good sold there), where the rent was higher than places outside the company town, or any grace period to come up with the money. When company officials refused to deal with any organized group of representatives and in any event refused to budge on issues of pay, the workers walked off the job.

Following the walkout, the American Railway Union (ARU) launched a national boycott of all trains carrying Pullman passenger cars. The two events (but primarily the ARU boycott) caused a national crisis that practically paralyzed rail travel in the country, severely impacting if not eliminating passenger rail travel as well as travel of many goods to market and raw materials to factories (causing a number of food shortages as well as factory shut downs in various industries), and ended up resulting in violent protests that involved arson, riots, murder, the destruction of hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) of railroad property and a number of deaths and necessitated in several states the calling out of both state militia as well as a number of federal forces notably the U.S. Army not just in Illinois but in several other states.

In addition to a detailed account of the various aspects of the Pullman Strike, the author also treats the reader to dual biographies, that of Eugene V. Debs, who founded the ARU and was the one that decided to initiate the boycott of trains carrying Pullman passenger cars, and of George Pullman, designer and manufacturer of the Pullman car and founder of the company town of Pullman, a man as the author makes clear whose refusal to raise wages, meet with any worker organization, or agree to outside arbitration was the principal reason the strike went on as long as it did (into late July 1894) and was costly as it was in terms of disruption to the economy, damage to property, and loss of life. Though other historical figures are important in the narrative such as Samuel Gompers (founder and president of the American Federation of Labor or AFL), President Grover Cleveland, Clarence Darrow (who defended Eugene V. Debs in court), Richard Olney (United States Attorney General under President Cleveland), and John Peter Altgeld (governor of Illinois), it was Debs and Pullman who were the principal people behind the two sides of the conflict and the two people the author gives biographies of (including their lives before and after the Pullman Strike).

The author does talk about a number of issues, including the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the history of the Pullman company, the Great Northern Railway strike of 1893, the history of socialism as a political force in America (as relates to Debs), and the presidency of Grover Cleveland, the heart of the book is the Pullman Strike as well as Debs and Pullman.

Well-written, the pacing was really good and once the strike got rolling there was a good bit of action the author related, with the reader put into the shoes of people at various momentous events including a number of events that resulted in riots, arson, and deaths, making for vivid writing and a riveting narrative. I appreciated how the book wasn’t just a “and then this happened” account but also had a good deal of analysis of the character and mindset of Debs and Pullman and analyzed in detail at the end why the Pullman Strike turned out the way it did and what its legacy was (extending into the 1980s). I think the book is an entertaining narrative history and useful to understand the Gilded Age, the coming of the Progressive Age, and the history of labor unions and of railroads in the United States. Also, a good bit on the history of Chicago of the time and the Supreme Court of that era (the same Supreme Court that ruled in 1896 in Plessy vs. Ferguson that racial segregation did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as things were “separate but equal”).

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1894 strike by the American Railway Union (ARU) against the Pullman Palace Car Company was indeed the closest America ever came to industrial anarchy, or to a nationwide general strike. It was the most heated big labor battle of the Gilded Age, but it was also the last one. The failure of the strike presaged decades of labor union quiescence. As a swan song for radical labor, it has attracted some scholarly interest, but Jack Kelly gives the strike its full due in this popular book.

The hero of the book, and its author, is Eugene Victor Debs. He was from a prosperous Alsatian family in Terra Haute, Indiana. His father owned a textile mill, but was also something of a political liberal, which is why he named his son after the two liberal French authors Eugene Sula and Victor Hugo. Debs himself dropped out of school early and began working the railroads, where he rose to head the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. The failure of the Burlington Strike in 1888 led him to break off and form the ARU, which quickly won an arbitrated victory against the Great Northern Railroad in 1893. The victory made Debs a national hero or a national villain, depending on the individual asked.

When the former Buffalo and Chicago house-raiser, and current head of the sleeping car company, George Pullman cut wages at his manufacturing plant in 1894, while refusing to cut their rents in his company town, the local workers voted to strike. Despite Debs's initial reluctance, the national ARU agreed to do so in support. Soon hundreds of thousands of workers were refusing to move any railroad trains with Pullman cars, and some of the Brotherhood workers joined them in support. Federal and state troops were called out after property started burning, and dozens of deaths resulted. Eventually Debs made the consequential move to push for a nationwide general strike, but Samuel Gompers and the AFL stood against it. Soon Debs had to concede failure, and he ended up, with a few other ARU officials, spending 6 months in prison on a contempt of court charge for his advocacy. He later claimed the prison-time led him to form the Socialist Party, which he led as its presidential candidate for the following two decades.

The story here is well-told, but the author, like most labor historians, has an axe to grind. Every move by the railroad or federal officials is merely at the behest of benighted plutocrats, and every riot, murder, or destruction is "likely" the result of false flag saboteurs working for the railroads themselves, or locals not associated with the actual striking workers. This is clearly false, but at least Kelly discusses these terrifying episodes and the amount of chaos they caused. The book overall is a good reminder of when labor struggles were the most important in the country, and how much they occupied every person from the President of the United States (then an ardently anti-strike Grover Cleveland) on down to the lowliest worker.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nonfiction about the boycott of Pullman sleeping railroad cars in 1894, led by Eugene V. Debs and suppressed by President Cleveland, his attorney general Richard Olney, and General Nelson Miles. The strike – which started with workers in the factories who built Pullman's cars, spread to all employees of all railroads carrying the cars, and nearly became a nationwide general strike (ie, involving members of all unions, regardless of their line of work, from grocers to butchers to brewers) – at its height involved 250,000 people and ended with over fifty deaths, mostly caused by railword agents or federal soldiers. Although the strike ultimately failed, it can be seen as a tipping point between the railroad barons of the Gilded Age and the attempts at social reform of the Progressive Era.

Many famous figures make appearances in The Edge of Anarchy, from Jane Addams to Andrew Carnegie, as well as events of the day, including Chicago's Columbian Exposition (of The Devil in the White City fame), Lizzie Borden's trial, the economic depression of 1893, mine strikes in 1894, and the assassination of French president Carnot. But ultimately the focus is on the opposing figures of Debs and George Pullman himself, union leader versus businessman, the one who lost this battle but ended up as a major political force against the one who won this time but found himself losing subsequent legal cases, alienated from even other business tycoons, and dying soon afterwards.

I do have to say that The Edge of Anarchy isn't quite as good as Kelly's previous book, Heaven's Ditch (which remains the best nonfiction I've read in some time), though that's mostly because Kelly has chosen to work with a less batshit wild story this time. I also wish Kelly had paid more attention to how race influenced the Pullman Strike. African Americans, though not allowed to work in Pullman's factories, were important employees of the sleeping cars once they were on the railroads, yet were not allowed to join the American Railway Union. Kelly does acknowledge these facts, but I felt they should have been central to the story rather than isolated to one or two chapters.

Nonetheless, The Edge of Anarchy does make for perfect reading at our particular moment in time, when we seem to be in a new Gilded Age of unregulated business practices and presidential candidates can once again actually call themselves socialists. It's always nice to be reminded that socialism in fact has a long and influential history within the US.

I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[Douglas Noakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Kelly offers us a thorough look at the rise of American labor in the 1890s, during the first Gilded Age--rather like the one we are in now. The major owner-labor dispute was the Pullman Strike, the largest walk-out by a US labor force, in the Summer of 1894.

It is not a cheerful tale.

The book revolves around two titanic figures--the capitalist George Pullman, who owned the Pullman Railroad car Company and built a company town (called Pullman, naturally) but left his workers in a state of abject poverty, basically forcing them to strike. The other figure is union organizer Eugene V. Debs, who took his success into creating a giant American Railroad Workers Union and came to the aid of the striking Pullman employees.

On one side there were workers trying to get Pullman to arbitrate. Sadly, there were some strikers but mostly thuggish bystanders from the Chicago slums who resorted to violence. Areas like Sacramento, California, which had suffered under the hold the railroad men had over the economy, also had violent skirmishes. (Kelly's research shows that much of that violence was carried out by men who were left unemployed not by the railroads per se, but by the economic downtown caused by the Panic of 1893.

A third figure in the book is President Grover Cleveland, who came swiftly to the aid of the Pullman Company and the railroad lines that were paralyzed by the strikers. Cleveland's attorney-general, Richard Olney, was also a man of wealth (and a Social Darwinist of the worst kind) who came down hard on the union men, courtesy of using the United States military on both rowdies and bystanders alike.

It makes for grim reading, but all Americans should know the details of this bleak chapter in American life if we can appreciate the gains that were made later in the Progressive and New Deal Eras as far as giving working men and women the ability to strike and lobby for better wages and a decent life. That power has eroded since the Reagan Era, but as long as works like THE EDGE OF ANARCHY are written and read about, we have a template to strengthen the rights of workers.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book focuses on the conflict between labor and industry, particularly those industries that prospered around the railroads. Today we say that the interstate freeway system favored the trucking industry over maintaining railroad roadbeds. However, in the last half of the 19th century, railroads were favored over roadways, specifically those connecting towns and cities. The author looks at two industries, in particular, the ones that were successful, but he also exposed the hard and ruthless stand they took against their employees.

The Great Northern Railway operated by James J Hill, who was also a civic leader in Seattle and was known as the Empire Builder. He had a dream of populating the western states with farming communities as he extended his railroad across the country. But when crops failed or there was a lack of rain that forced farmers to abandon their land, Hill took the brunt of the blame for luring basically build railroad towns to keep his company profitable and able to continue to expand westward.

The other was the luxury railroad sleeper car company, The Pullman Palace Car Company, run by George Pullman. His success and wealth came from the way he operated the company. He did not sell his cars to the railroads, rather he leased them to the railroads, thereby keeping control of the high level of service provided and the maintenance of the cars. This also allowed Pullman to be switch his cars between railroad companies as the travelers crossed the country.

Both men were beset with dealing with employee unions during poor economic times. They were focused on maintaining their profit while squeezing their workers who were forced to live in company towns, with high rents and commodities at the company’s store. The owners didn’t see this as a problem, but it caused the employees to unionize which forced the owners to eventually come to the bargaining table. But in the case of Pullman a long strike supported by the entire railroad industry, drawn out by resistance that ended in favor of big business.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook) Given that interest in the Gilded Age has picked up in recent weeks, figured this would be as good as any work to read. The focal point of the book is the Pullman Strike of 1894. Back when railroads were the lifeblood of the US economy, the strikes against the Pullman company put the nation on edge. While people had sympathy with the laborers, who worked long hours and lived in company homes with low pay and exorbitant rent dampening living standards, the impacts to logistics, supplies and other businesses turned people and the government against them. Perhaps in the worst mistake of Cleveland’s second term, he called out the US military to break the strike, inciting violence. The strikers found themselves divided at times, led by Socialist Eugene Debs and AFL Samuel Gompers, who had different visions for what the workers should do to improve their lot against the tough corporate world. While the strike was a failure for those that participated in it in the short term, the long term impacts set the stage for much of the labor improvements of the next forty years.

In 2025, there is a sense that perhaps business will undo many of those efforts put forth in the wake of the Pullman Strike. If nothing else, it is good to review history to see what went right, and what can be improved upon. Sometimes, people took labor progress for granted. It can be helpful to learn what life was like without those protections. Are unions perfect? No, they are not. However, they generally have a purpose, one that is gaining in popularity again as workers feel overwhelmed by big business and powerful business titans/oligarchs. Solid history and the rating is the same regardless of format.

[Mark Luongo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever wondered how "Gilded" the Gilded Age was then this is the book for you. Mark Twain was right in calling it so, the inequity was frightening. Not having read much about the Pullman Strike of 1894 before, it turned out to be quite the eye-opener for me.
Usually when we taught it was Civil War, Frontier expansion, a brief aside about the Gilded Age and then the jump to Immigration and the U.S. becoming a World Power at the turn of the 20th Century. This book gives a view of what was going on in those years Twain was referring to.
Now what I like the best is when historical personalities intermingle during the course of an event. Too often we think them as singular not taking into consideration those others of note who were involved in a particular event and may have crossed each other path.
In this case, aside from George Pullman and Eugene Debs, many others were somehow touched or made their mark during the course of this titanic labor unrest. Social reformer Jane Addams, poet James Whitcomb Riley, Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld, attorney Clarence Darrow, author Jack London, educator John Dewey, General Nelson Miles, President Grover Cleveland, and labor leader Samuel Gompers were all tied up in this event that pushed the nation to the "ragged edge of anarchy".
Emphasis is placed on how much importance the nation had placed upon the railroads in so many aspects of its daily life at the time. You really get an idea of what it took to get goods & services to the people via rail and how any glitch could undermine that.
Good read.

[Ray Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America" offers a compelling historical exploration of a pivotal moment in American labor history. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, a time characterized by rapid industrialization and the ascent of powerful railroad barons, the book centers on the Great Railroad Strike of 1877—a seminal event in U.S. labor uprisings. Jack Kelly skillfully intertwines the stories of key figures, such as railroad magnates like George Pullman and labor leader Eugene Debs, founder of the American Railway Union. Through their narratives, the book provides a comprehensive understanding of the complex social, economic, and political forces that defined this tumultuous era.

Reading like a novel, "Edge of Anarchy" serves as an educational window into the challenges faced by American workers, the exploitative practices of the railroad industry, and the broader societal issues that fueled the labor movement. In doing so, this historical account not only sheds light on the roots of labor activism, but also delves into the enduring impact of the Great Railroad Strike. Through its exploration of these topics, the book offers valuable insights into the dynamics between corporate power and organized labor during a transformative period in American history. Ultimately, "Edge of Anarchy" leaves the reader with a profound understanding of the consequences of industrialization and the ongoing struggles workers face against formidable odds.

[Roger Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent study of labour strife in the railroad industry and the career of Eugene Debs who organized the American Railway Union in the 1890's. It was also a study of the Gilded Age and one of the most notorious of the Robber Barons, George Pullman. It was his practice , in response to the depression of 1893, of cutting wages and raising rents in his "model" town of Pullman that led to the outbreak of the strike and spread to other workers in the transportation industry. He was at best hard headed and intransigent when it came to offering his workers a living wage' The strike dragged on until violence flared and conditions got out of control. It was clear that the authorities, from President Cleveland to his attorney general, Richard Olney, to the justices of the Supreme Court, were solidly on the side of the corporations and the Robber Barons and in the end, the strike failed. However, many of the goals of Debs and the union movement were achieved under Teddy Roosevelt but more likely, under FDR 40 years later. It was sad to read in the last chapter that since the 1980's, workers have suffered reverses, beginning with the closure of industries and the decline of unionization.

[EmilyP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the Gilded Age to be a fascinating time in American history, but I know very little about it. In "The Edge of Anarchy," Jack Kelly provides great insight into this time by describing the Pullman boycott of 1894 and the events leading up to it. Kelly vividly illustrates the dichotomy between the working class and the ultra-wealthy, and he profiles some of the famous names of the era, such as Eugene V. Debs, George Pullman, and Grover Cleveland.
I was hooked to this book from beginning to end. Kelly has a very engaging writing style, and the book read more like a novel than a historical account. Because so many things happen during such a short time span, I did get confused by the timeline in a couple of places. Also, the depiction of Debs seemed overly positive. While that may have been completely accurate, it seems like it could have been a little more balanced.
All in all, an excellent book that I highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book filled me in on much of labor history that i never learned in school. Some things were stunning. Apparently the general public looked favorably upon a massive railroad strike. When the Pullman railroad sleeper car company went on strike they were joined by members of the much larger American Railroad Union. All for one and one for all wasn't just a slogan. It was lived. It was an era of solidarity.

Eventually the corporate owners put an end to the strike by urging President Grover Cleveland to favor the demands of capital over laboring people, using the United States military. Bloodshed ensued.

Also, George Pullman had instigated the strike by paying his workers starvation wages. They lived in a company built town and paid inflated rent for their homes. Pullman stubbornly refused to consider his workers' demands thereby lengthening the strike and greatly expanding it. He was an early version of a heartless, wealthy scoundrel exerting undue influence on our government. There are examples of his ilk today. Elon Musk comes to mind.

[Jeff Garrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is in keeping with a long lists of books about America in the late 19th Century which I’ve read this past year. The book focuses on two key people, George Pullman and Eugene V. Debs. The late 19th Century was a period of unrest in this country as Kelly points out. This was the era of Coxey’s army marching on Washington, along with large strikes by workers and anarchist ready to toss a bomb (sometimes literally) into simmering conflicts.

Pullman was the founder of the “palace car empire” and a very wealthy man. Not only did he build sleeping cars, he maintained control of his cars by leasing them to the railroads instead of selling them. This way, he not only built the cars but provided staff that operated the rolling hotels and was able to shuffle cars between railroads, allowing customers to stay in a car as the train passed over multiple railroads. Pullman was innovated in many ways. He attempted to build an upscale company town. His idea was to attract better workers for building his rail cars, but it was still a town that he owned and controlled. In the 1890s, as deflation swept the nation, Pullman cut the wages of his workers, while maintaining the rents he charged in his town. During this time, he refused to cut the dividends his company paid or reduce his own and his top management’s salaries. This lead to unrest and eventually a major strike that impacted the entire nation.

Opposite Pullman was Eugene V. Debs, who was attempting to change the nature of unions from a craft guild that served particular skills (such as firemen and engineers) to a union that represented all railroad workers. As the strike at the Pullman plant grew, other railroads workers became involved, leading to disruption throughout the system. While employees refused to handle Pullman cars, the battle became greater as other traffic was delayed or stopped. Cities like Chicago were beginning to starve.

Kelly demonstrates the length the railroads went to in order to break the strike. One tool they had was the mail service. Debs and other strikers insisted that nothing was to be done to disturb the mail, which was a federal offense. Mail cars on passenger trains were generally at the front of the train, while the Pullman cars, which had to be available to be transferred from one line to the other, were at the back of trains. This allowed railroad workers, who were refusing to handle Pullman cars, to easily push them off onto sidings while allowing the railroad to continue operating. Knowing this, train officials starts making up the train, putting the mail cars behind the Pullmans, forcing the union’s hand. Eventually, the federal government was able to use the excuse of mail disruption to call in the army to break the strike. Soldiers who had been used to keep the peace in the West (or fighting the “Indian Wars”) were deployed to cities like Chicago and Sacramento.

Kelly tells the story of the strike and the era in an interesting way that keeps the reader engaged.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always fascinated by the history of labor in the US. This delivers well.

A lot of the focus is on Eugene Debs and George Pullman, for obvious reasons, but Kelly also makes the stakes and motivations clear for the broader labor movement. This book is a tight and controlled look at a strike, boycott, and the way capital and government coordinated together to crush people who were on starvation wages.

It's fascinating, depressing, but also somewhat hopeful. Despite losing their battle against Pullman, this battle really set the broad labor movement in motion and led us to the progressive era and the growing strength of the labor movement. It also doesn't shy away from the racism rampant at the time in the labor movement (not unique to the labor movement, mind, but the mass belief in the inferiority of black people was alive and powerful in labor as well).

Definitely worth checking out.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brisk to the point of slightly rushed, but still, a meticulously researched and relatively even-handed account of the Pullman Strike of 1894, which merits two paragraphs in most history texts but Mr. Kelly makes a credible argument was a pivotal moment in American history, one which galvanized both the working and ruling classes. In the George Bailey v. Mr. Potter scenario that is the contrast between union leader Eugene Debs and industrialist George Pullman, Mr. Kelly's sympathies are with the former, but he manages to make the latter, if not sympathetic, at least a more dimensional villain. He's not quite as forgiving of President Grover Cleveland, whom he portrays as a humorless prig. In fact, all the biographies of Cleveland I've read portray him as a humorless prig, but a few of them intend it as praise.

[Andrew Wehrheim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Kelly provides a very readable account of the Pullman strike and boycott organized by the American Railway Union and led by Eugene Victor Debs. I personally read this book in the middle of reading a biography of Debs to gain greater insight into the events and characters surrounding the Pullman strike and boycott. Kelly creates an engaging account by organizing his narrative into short chapters and by offering character sketches of those who were involved. He also makes a noticeable attempt to offer an objective account (as far as objectivity is possible) that refrains from championing any person or side as perfectly sacrosanct or demonizing the other. Yet, he does not hold back from presenting and analyzing the pertinent historical conditions that made the Pullman strike and boycott such a large-scale event in labor and American history.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Superb, Well-Written History

Kelly has written a fabulous historical narrative of the labor movement, corporate greed and government duplicity during the Gilded Age that are hauntingly resounding during our the new Gilded Age of the 21st Century. Well researched and without bias, I found this book to be one of the best I’ve read due in no small measure to Kelly’s writing which is both insightful and compelling in its tone.

I plan on reading more of Jack Kelly’s books not only for his fine treatment of history and it’s subjects, but mainly to enjoy his writing style which is captivating. I simply could not stop reading “The Edge of Anarchy”. Truly, a great book and read!!