Labor and Urban Politics : Class Conflict and the Origins of Modern Liberalism in Chicago, 1864-97

This finely detailed narrative is the definitive account of the rise to power of the Chicago labor movement amidst the 1877 railroad strike, the 1886 struggle over the eight-hour workday, and the 1894 Pullman strike.

Hinging on a major reinterpretation of the Haymarket era, Labor and Urban Politics argues for labor's profound influence on the shaping of urban politics and the transformation of liberalism in late nineteenth-century America.