In many ways the story of the Great Strike of 1877 was the story of how a conflict in the state of Pennsylvania went national. The national capital had long ago left Philadelphia for Washington, D.C., and the financial capital had shifted to New York, but Pennsylvania, with its coal, oil, and industry, remained the workshop of the nation. The Pennsylvania Railroad was the country’s most powerful and best-run corporation, which, given the road’s insider dealing, says much about American corporations.
