The Edge of Anarchy
The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America
ISBN10: 1250128862
ISBN13: 9781250128867
Hardcover
320 Pages
$28.99
CA$37.99
The Edge of Anarchy offers a vivid account of the greatest uprising of workers 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.
Reviews
Praise for The Edge of Anarchy
"Timely . . . Kelly tells this story with exhilaration . . . [The Edge of Anarchy] is not only a wonderful distillation of why the 1894 Pullman strike still matters, but it also presents an excellent overview of what life was like in 1894—full of technological promise, and yet riddled with class conflict and economic warfare."—New York Journal of Books
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
1
Boss Town
On a May morning in 1893, President Grover Cleveland looked out on the most astounding metropolis ever built, the fabulous White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Staring back were the half-million...