Altgeld's America

by Ray Ginger

The "America" of this excellent book by the author of Six Days or Forever?, the story of the Scopes trial, is actually Chicago, for with John Peter Altgeld, social reformer & Governor of Illinois, as his protagonist & the Haymarket bomb of 1886 as his catalytic agent he tells the story of Chicago's political & social history in the late 19th century, its fabulous wealth & incredible poverty, its strikes, its luxury & its crusading reformers: Altgeld, Clarence Darrow, the women of Hull House & many others. By the 1880's the "Lincoln morality" of earlier years had given way to the morality of success; compassion was forgotten in desire for wealth. In Chicago, blatant, vigorous, booming, restless, this was particularly true. Labor conditions were appalling, sweatshops were almost universal, child labor was a sickening sore & men injured at their jobs were thrown into the street. Against this background the Haymarket bomb, hurled during a strike at the McCormick plant, exploded with a violence that shook all America & brought to the fore such men as Altgeld, Darrow & Judge Gary who tried the alleged rioters, denying them constitutional rights, hanging some of them & sentencing others to life imprisonment, verdicts questioned by many. Altgeld, a fighter noted for his reforms who had already set his mark on Chicago's social history, was in 1892 elected Governor of Illinois & pardoned the rioters, an act which brought him defeat at the hands of Gary. He died, still fighting for reform, in 1902. Excellently documented, tautly written & highly readable, this book is an invaluable contribution to the literature of America's social & political development & philosophy. It's a must for college & public libraries & for students of social history.--Kirkus

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several of Ray Ginger's social histories and they are all very good. This is a history of the United States of America told from the perspective of the Altgeld administration of Illinois during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its focus is on my home town, Chicago, the heart of so much change in that period.

It is embarrassing to note that my paternal grandmother's father, Albrecht Neuman, worked with the notorious Judge Gary in the development of the Indiana town named after him and the U.S. Steel plant located there. A successful engineer, this association led to the family building a cottage across the border in Michigan near the lake. Completion of his work in Gary, Indiana also led to the family moving from Hyde Park to Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood on the north side.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

ray ginger is an unacknowledged great in american history. he wrote the definitive biography of eugene debs & tackles a pivotal moment in the book "altgeld's america." chicago in the aftermath of the haymarket affair pitted big money & all-american graft against the burgeoning union movement and the nobler goals of jane addams & hull house.

[Adrian Colesberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like The Free and the Unfree, this is a populist history of the era after the Civil War. As I remember, it concentrated on events around Chicago.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look at the transition from pluralism to corporatism in American economic life