pullman strike, 1894

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.

Discusses the labor strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in Pullman, Illinois, in 1894, and the federal government's use of force to keep the railroads operating and to control the striking workers.

Discusses the violent Pullman strike of 1894, which closed railroads across the midwestern United States and made the nation's leaders see the need for addressing the concerns of the country's workers.

Describes the labor unrest of the late nineteenth century and chronicles the origins and effects of the Pullman strike; also includes a time line, a bibliography, and a list of related Internet sites.