The Wobblies in Their Heyday

Description

The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World During the World War I Era

By Eric Thomas Chester
Levellers Press

Based on extensive archival research, The Wobblies in Their Heyday dives deep into the IWW during the World War I era when it was able to organize militant strikes that drastically curtailed production in key industries, including copper mining and lumber. Eric Thomas Chester looks at the debates within the union on how to build a broad-based movement to oppose the war. Chester also details the coordinated campaign of repression launched by the administration of Woodrow Wilson with the intention of crushing the Wobblies.

“Chester has established a new watermark for historical understanding of the IWW.”—Staughton Lynd, author of Solidarity Unionism

“Chester’s description of the anti-subversive crusade by federal authorities during World War I and their linking of domestic radicals with violence or terrorism proves yet again how government uses its legal authority to crush and punish dissenters and mavericks.”—Melvyn Dubofsky, author of We Shall Be All