The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon

by William M. Adler

In 1914, Joe Hill was convicted of murder in Utah and sentenced to death by firing squad, igniting international controversy. Many believed Hill was innocent, condemned for his association with the Industrial Workers of the World -- the radical Wobblies. Now, following four years of intensive investigation, William M. Adler gives us the first full-scale biography of Joe Hill, and presents never before published documentary evidence that comes as close as one can to definitively exonerating him.

Joe Hill's gripping tale is set against a brief but electrifying moment in American history, between the century's turn and World War I, when the call for industrial unionism struck a deep chord among disenfranchised workers; when class warfare raged and capitalism was on the run. Hill was the union's preeminent songwriter, and in death, he became organized labor's most venerated martyr, celebrated by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, and immortalized in the ballad "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night."

The Man Who Never Died does justice to Joe Hill's extraordinary life and its controversial end. Drawing on extensive new evidence, Adler deconstructs the case against his subject and argues convincingly for the guilt of another man. Reading like a murder mystery, and set against the background of the raw, turn-of-the-century West, this essential American story will make news and expose the roots of critical contemporary issues.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Labor, Politics, American History, Historical

448 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2011

Reviews

[Randy Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill has done an excellent job in uncovering new material about Hill and thereby creating a much more accurate portrait of this noted Wobbly. This new information also supports the argument that Hill was innocent of the crimes for which he was executed. The identity of Hill's alibi woman and the circumstances of Hill's gunshot wound are revealed. On the basis of this book, Hill deserves renewed attention concerning his life and works and his execution by firing squad in Utah. Beyond that, this should be considered to be the definitive Hill biography. It is well-written and engaging. (I assisted in researching this book, especially about Hill's childhood and youth in his native Sweden.)

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Been very interested and intrigued by Joe Hill's life for a few years (not the writer obviously). The time and struggles a lot of immigrants and many others had to face in USA. Working class has never been easy but Joe Hill definitely made his mark and life known for years to come. The murder case that ended his short life was interesting to read about as well and it makes you wonder if they knew he was probably innocent all along. His life would make a very good movie or an actor played documentary that's for sure

[Ronnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book....this book....this book is probably one of the best well written about a history and an icon , Joe Hill. The Wobblies...Eugene Debs....Mother Jones......Dissent......poverty...immigrants....big buisness....the intermixing of corporations and states.....I really do hope people will read this book....It is eye-opening, revelatory....and awe inspiring. Dissent by itself is startling....but with courage of ones convictions its breathtaking......

[Mark Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe Mr. Adler has proven his case, although circumstantial it is more compelling that the one brought by the anchorites of Utah and Salt Lake City. The one thing that most struck me while reading the book was the cliche that the more things change, the more they stay the same; class warfare is not the province of Occupy and the 99%, except that today's protestors do not have a personage of the stature of Joe Hill to inspire them, even much less so than the antiwar protestors of the 60s and 70s. Hill begat Guthrie & Seeger, they in turn begat Dylan and Ochs (all the news that is fit to sing)

I think that this book answers all the questions that can or will be answered about Hill. A lot of things are left unexplained and some of the given explanations, such as Hill's account of the the events of the night of the murders, strike me as unbelievable as if made up on the fly; but that doesn't matter because Mr. Adler clearly shows that no matter what, the evidence presented at the trial, and the trial itself, were all a sham and a farce. Of course a book about Joe Hill must also be about the IWW and I think that the book does an excellent job of giving us a contextual overview of the movement (I didn't know Helen Keller was a Wobbly or that the IWW took an active part in the Mexican revolution).

Good book, interesting read - dare I say, inspiring even!

Good luck to all of you

[Tom Mueller]

If you never died, can you help the younger generations find a voice to lead them?
We have Michael Moore and others, but who do we (they, the younger generations) have that will put their ideologies to song? A voice that can help overcome what I perceive as wanton apathy?
Injustices rampant today can be compared to those of the early Twentieth Century.
So . . . "come back Woody . . . we need you now."
I will request that our Library purchase a copy for our collection.

[Sasha Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A STUNNING HISTORY OF JOE HILL'S LIFE AND CASE - ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS EVER

It took William M. Adler five and a half years to complete this outstanding biography about Joe Hill, (nee Joseph Hillström), and it shows. His research into the life of Hill, a Swedish ex-pat who was a Laureate of Labor during the International Workers of the World labor movement in the U.S. and Canada in the early part of the Twentieth Century, is exhilarating and thorough.

Hill, an immigrant laborer, fled life in the religiously intolerant Sweden for the American dream after his parents died. Rather than discovering the promised vision of freedom, he found economic injustice, deplorable working conditions, bare, meager wages, a low standard of living, and controlling, inhumane bosses.

Joe got involved with the I.W.W. (the Wobblies) movement in several cities where he worked organizing rallies for the union and ultimately rose to fame due to his exceptional talent for writing about current conditions, which he set to popular tunes. His songs, infused with irony and humor, stand up as some of the best folks songs I've ever heard.

After following the work flow to a series of towns and going to Baja California in 1910 to take part in the Mexican Revolution along with Mexican allies of similar radical persuasion, Joe and another Swedish immigrant, Otto Appelquist, ended up at a boarding house outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. There, Hill and Appelquist both had their eye on the same young woman, Hilda Erickson, to whom Otto became engaged. On the same night Grocer John G. Morrison and his son Arling were murdered at their store, Joe turned up at a physican's house with a bullet wound. He told the doctor he was shot by a romantic rival. Hilda had recently broken off her engagement to Applelquist, and Hill, a songwriter, wrote Hilda two love songs before she broke off it off with Otto.

Alder goes into diligent detail about another fellow in town who went by the alias Frank Z. Wilson, one of many fake identities. Wilson, somewhat of a Hill look-a-like, was a staunch career criminal with a trail of badass crimes as long as Joe's list of conscientious actions that were taken by a man with a high sense of morality and intellect, and deeply devoted to justice, fairness, worker's rights, and the betterment of humankind.

Adler also does an outstanding job chronicling the political and religious views and aspirations of those in positions of power in Utah and how they conflicted with Joe's union supporter rebel persona.

With the sketchy Wilson at large, and without circumstantial or other evidence against Joe Hill, Joe was booked for the Morrison murders. The trial proceedings against Joe were corrupt and manipulated; there was failure to show motive, insufficient identification, and some of the jurors were appointed by a judge with a political aspirations and past that set him squarely against Hill.

As an itinerant physical laborer, Joe Hill couldn't afford a defense and notably fired his lawyers while court was in session, but his request was not honored by the judge. When his case was on appeal to the Utah Supreme Court, he had the help of famed attorney Orrin N. Hilton who declared: "The main thing the state had on Hill was that he was an IWW and therefore sure to be guilty. Hill tried to keep the IWW out of [the trial] ... but the press fastened it upon him."

Though his life was on the line, Joe refused to divulge the woman's name he was involved with, or that of her other suitor, Otto Appelquist, who coincidentally skipped out of town the night Joe was arrested, never to return. Helen Keller, the Swedish Ambassador, President Woodrow Wilson, the activist and orator Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, (for whom Joe wrote the song, "The Rebel Girl"), and other high profile persons in society and the labor movement, rallied for Joe in various ways.

Hill's complex story is of IWW’s most acclaimed martyr - a man of integrity who saw his own life as insignificant in contrast to the needs of the working people and causes which he loyally devoted himself to - versus a false, wicked, and cowardly system, peopled by vile fools. Joe never wavered in his stand for a just trial, which he did not get.

William Adler presents this accomplished account without stating his ultimate judgement on the matter, so I will. Hill, a political prisioner, was framed, and the corrupt legal system has not changed much since. Hill is a hero of mine. Here is one of his songs to Hilda:

OH, PLEASE LET ME DANCE THIS LAST WALTZ WITH YOU

When I hear that melody, with its rhythmic harmony,
Then I feel just like I’d be in a dream entrancing,
And I’d like to float through space, softly glide from place to place,
With the fascinating grace of a fairy dancing.

Oh, please let me dance this waltz with you,
And look in your dreamy eyes of blue.
Sweet imagination, smooth, gliding sensation,
Oh, love, I would die just for dancing this waltz with you.

Listen to that mellow strain, come and let us waltz again.
Please don’t let me ask in vain; I just feel like flying,
Put your head close to my heart, And we’ll never, never part.
Come my darling, let us start, from joy I’m nearly dying.

[Saint Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my new bible

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eminently readable. A great history of the Wobblie movement, and even interesting sidebars into pre-Zapatista Mexican revolutionaries, and Sweden’s theocratic government.

[Timmy Connelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes more than guns to kill a man.

[D Reed Whittaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this. Interesting to note corruption in Utah has deep historical roots. It's been a 100 years and not much has changed. If you're interested in social injustice, early labor struggles, early life in Utah, and or the struggles of an artist you will enjoy this book. Glad the author focused on Joe's songs. I'll try to find the 'little red books'. Have fun, it's a good read in spite of the ending. Enjoy.

[Nicole]

I read about a quarter of this book. It seems like a fine non-fiction read about a lesser known historical figure during the labor movement. Unfortunately, I'm not in same mood for reading non-fiction I was at the time I started the book and have decided to set it aside.

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently finished reading The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon by William M. Adler.

Joel Emmanuel Hägglund was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, the "Wobblies"). He was also known as Joseph Hillström, which was later shortened to Joe Hill. He rose in the IWW organization and traveled widely, organizing workers under the IWW banner, writing political songs, letters, satirical poems, drawing cartoons, and making speeches.

He was a major contributor to The Little Red Songbook, a collection of songs related to the international trade union, first published in 1909. The purpose of the book was to "fan the flames of discontent" and build support for the union and the labor movement. It featured old folk songs and hymns with new lyrics, along with music written expressly for the labor movement. Thirty-eight editions were published between 1909 and 2010.

The importance of music in political movements cannot be overstated. Music, especially singing, brings people together. The use of music as a political weapon and organizing tool often uses familiar tunes. The formula is simple. Start with a familiar gospel, folk, or pop song. Keep it simple. Add a little humor. Make it evocative, memorable, and most importantly, repetitious. Sing Loud!

The most famous Joe Hill song was not a song he wrote, but a song that was written about him. Ten years after he died, Alfred Hayes wrote a poem called “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night.” Earl Robinson set it to music about a decade later, and it quickly became an anthem for the labor movement. Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsLpj...

In 1914 Hill was accused of the murder of a Salt Lake City store owner, John A. Morrison, and was convicted on circumstantial evidence. There ensued an international battle to prevent his execution by the State of Utah. Hill’s supporters claimed that the business interests of the West, especially the “Copper Bosses” of Utah, had conspired to eliminate him. While there was no direct evidence that this was true, the climate of opinion in the West and in Utah was decidedly hostile to the IWW and to Joe Hill. Under today’s laws, Hill would not have been executed on the evidence presented at his trial. President Woodrow Wilson intervened twice to prevent the execution, but Hill was executed at the Utah State Prison in Sugar House, Utah, on 19 November 1915.

Thoroughly researched, the book has 84 pages of Acknowledgements, Sources and Notes, a Selected Bibliography, as well as an Index. There is also an array of photos, illustrations, and artifacts.

My two favorite iconic Hill quotes are:
“I will die like a true, blue rebel. Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize.”
“It is a hundred miles from here to Wyoming. Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? Don’t want to be found dead in Utah.”

[Rhuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm writing this review in the midst of the Edward Snowden uproar, the NSA leaker being denounced as a "traitor" and "agent" under the same WWI-era espionage act that crushed the IWW, of which Joe Hill's trial and execution was the immediate precursor. In words that its editorial page could have scribbled yesterday, the Wall St. Journal demanded "Why wait? The nation is at war, and treason must be met with preventive as well as punitive measures. . . Instead of waiting to see if their bite is poisonous, the heel of the Government should stamp them out at once" (p. 342).

Joe Hill would have agreed. The US and the world was indeed at war: a class war against all the WSJ stood for, and he its cavalier troubadour. In the mutual demonization between "law & property" and the IWW, the former showed itself as anarchistic, as cartoonish and bloody-minded, as any dynamite-sizzling syndicalist. Thus his strange equanimity when brought to trial, recognizing its farce as a dog-and-pony show whose verdict was determined in the indictment. Stranger still, though, was his belief that this system would somehow correct itself, and allow him a new trial in an unbiased venue to make his case. True to his own stand, he should have known better. But Joe Hill was ready for martyrdom: his comrades and the state obliged him, creating a myth that indeed won't die.

William Adler has meticulously reconstructed this twice-told Christ tale in excruciating detail. He provides us the forensic answers that should have been asked at the time, if justice had had any lingering presence in the judicial system. His prose is sometimes tortured; and his painstaking becomes somewhat dry and detached. Yet the topic, its subject, and Adler's systematic deconstruction of the judicial bigotry that framed the case more than compensate for defects in style.

Some might have preferred a long speculation on what Hill would have made of the subsequent Bolshevik revolution, that split his generation of radicals from their common purpose. But this story is more than a century-old peek at revolutionary dogma or quaint Americana. It's a document as contemporary as the morning FOX cable feed, whose copywriters must be inspired by the same muse. Alas, there is no one on Hill's side today to match his ruthless scorn for all that is stand-pat and appeasing. Hill's spirit chides us as a too-serious age that can no longer go into battle with a smile on its face, and spit in the eye of fate.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Adler knocked it out of the park. This terrific biography is a ”mycket bra” tribute to Joseph Hillström, aka Joe Hill, a Swedish immigrant, musician, poet, songwriter, union activist and — ultimately— martyr. From his early years in Sweden, where he experienced religious bigotry, to his unrelenting battles on behalf of the laboring class, to his unjust conviction and execution in the state of Utah, Hill’s story jumps off the pages of this very readable book. Utomordentlig.

Though Hill lived and died more than 100 years ago, the parallels to today are striking. Dissenters were and are verbally tarred and feathered in the name of decency and patriotism. In Hill’s day, the IWW and other labor activists were jailed, beaten, blackballed, and labeled as anarchists. In Hill’s case, he was railroaded by a judicial system that was crooked from the judge on down. God help those resisted the establishment.

Today, the struggle continues. Income inequality is greater than ever. The deck is stacked against the average worker. Dissenters are dismissed as “socialists.” If Hill were alive today, there’s no doubt he would march in solidarity with those who seek a living wage, free or very low-cost college education, affordable housing and healthcare for all. The world could use another Joe Hill. Thanks to Adler, his memory lives on. Vila i fred, Joe Hill.

[Alix · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sad vignette from American history, and another good example of the human as a complex creature with varying motivations.

Although sentenced to die for a murder that he likely did not commit, Joe Hill led a remarkable - albeit short - life. He lived during a volatile part of an industrializing world, where industry and workers were constantly at odds and the wealthy had a lot of power. It is not surprising now that justice may have failed Hill in this case, but we can be grateful for everything that he and others like him fought to achieve for workers in the United States - safe working conditions, affordable housing, a living wage, the right to assembly, etc.

Adler did a nice job of setting the stage for the incident (beginning with his early years in Sweden), and provided possible scenarios for what *really* happened. Although some chapters jumped around a little bit (from year to year and from topic to topic), it wasn't too distracting from the overall book.

This book is worth reading for those with interest in industrial unions, worker's rights, or criminal justice.

[Ross Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a passing familiarity with the IWW, and some of the labor history of the early 20th century, I'd never heard of Joe Hill(strom) until I heard one of his songs by a local folk-punk band. That led me to this book, and it's quite a story. It's a bit as if someone had taken a chapter from Howard Zinn's "A People's History" and made it come to life in one person.

The book covers Hill's journey from Sweden to the US and his life as itinerant worker, part-time revolutionary in Mexico, union organizer and unofficial poet of the IWW, and how that got him charged with murder in Salt Lake City. What this book adds to the story that no previous one did, is a fairly strong (but not perfect) confirmation of his alibi in the case that got him executed by the state of Utah.

It also documents quite well the power of the "gilded age" robber barons in the fight against labor and the complicity of state governments in particular working for them and against the common worker, not to mention the difficulty of getting a fair trial when you have no money; something just as true today as it was then.

[Rick Goff · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of the life and legacy of the chief songwriter of the Wobblies. The book is very easy to read, employing a common vocabulary and simple glosses of legal and economic principles. Still, it demonstrates thorough research and presents as detailed a sketch as one can hope for of a poor, peripatetic unskilled laborer. Even his notorious trial left poor documentation.

The author resists the urge to offer an unequivocal pronouncement of Hill’s innocence of the murder of which he was convicted with the punishment of death, limiting himself to the expressed opinion that the prosecution failed to prove its case. His review of the evidence and procedure is likely to lead the reader to hold the same opinion.

This book will serve as a good narrative introduction to the complex of relationships between capital,labor,politics and justice in the context of early 20th century industrial capitalism, especially in the American West.

[Joel Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this a bio of Joe Hill (his real name, I am proud to say, was Joel), and a very compelling courtroom thriller, but it is also a fantastic window into the whole era it took place in. Every now and then you read a book and feel like your brain just ate an apple of pure knowledge and information of a subject you were previously ignorant about. This is one of those books. Next step: find an anthology of all Joe Hill's songs recorded by someone somewhere. The IWW was proof of people's capacity to change society by organizing en masse whether the elected politicians support it or not. This is why the Wobblies were so scary to establishment democrats and republicans, as well as to industry leaders; they had effectively removed the far-away, office-dwelling, leather-seat-sitting, always-on-clearance-sale-to-whichever-corporations-are-buying, politico middlemen.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent look at a forgotten folk hero of the American labor movement. It's got everything, a life of an agitator going up and down across the country writing songs and fighting the good fight to a courtroom drama where the system itself condemned a man for simply belonging to a movement that the powers that be despised.

This fellow deserves a place in the Parthenon of American heroes, and is frighteningly relevant today as we've still got the issues of rich folks screwing the poor and a government that seems like it'd rather protect the money than act for the people.

[Brendon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This checked a lot of boxes for me: it’s part biography, part murder mystery, part legal drama, and part history of the American Labour movement in the early 1900s. The author has an annoying habit of using the same quotes over and over again—including, at times, full song verses—but it’s nonetheless an easy and engaging read.

[Steve Gillway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of research and analysis in this book as it sifts through the available material to explain and contextualise the death of the IWW activist Joe Hill. I found the book brought to life the chaotic nature of life for many US workers at this time and the limitations of the judicial syastem. For me there was a little too much background history. I would have like it to be more interwoven.

[Eric Cutler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended as a Labor Day read. Somewhere between true crime, biography and left leaning history this book hit a lot of my sweet spots. The author does a superb job of analyzing and contextualizing the enigmatic folk hero Joe Hill.

[F N Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

otroligt bra och omsorgsfullt skriven biografi över joe hills liv och öde.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book! I love how it was written. This is a man I knew very little about, although while reading some of his songs, some of the phrases sounded like things my grandpa would say from time to time - so I guess he does still live on! His is a very sad story, but to someone with social justice inclinations, also very inspiring - and I would love to know why Otto and Hilda never came forward.

The ridiculous headlines revolving around this story are exactly why I don't trust the media today - they are simply purveyors of pre-approved messages and cater to an elite few.

Some key passages that I found ironic, or particularly timeless:

"Employers had no incentive to spend money on improvements. Government regulation was nil; Western politicians considered labor regulation - wage and hour laws, for instance, or a prohibition on children's work - a throttle on the engine of economic growth."


With regard to capitalism in general, as opposed to any particular capitalist:
"...if tomorrow they were to win any number of political reforms - 'universal suffrage, complete freedom of religion', a 'normal workday and state insurance for everyone' - still unresolved would be the core issue: 'the unequal distribution of wealth,' which 'follows large-scale production as the shadow the body.'"


"....forcing the city, through civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, and overwhelming strength in numbers, to comply with the constitution."


"Within the fellowship of the union, he found a home, shed his anonymity, and discovered his voice as a songwriter: a gifted satirist and parodist who helped pioneer - and became the leading practitioner of - the use of music as a political weapon and organizing tool. In time, his prominence as a writer of popular revolutionary songs for an organization profoundly feared and hated by the establishment led to his prosecution and, ultimately, to his martyrdom."



I agree with the author, it is a shame that we don't take the sacrifices of our folk heroes more seriously. In school, we always heard about history from the "preferred, white-washed" viewpoint - history according to the victor. I think the world would be a better place, for everyone, if stories like this were presented in history class in lieu of government-approved propaganda. We have come a long way, but still have a long way to go - and are sadly heading in the wrong direction....

[Jeff Buddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential book. The story of Joe Hill is inseparable from the story of the International Workers of the World. Joe was the consummate Wobbly, committed and ideological to a fault, his dedication to the One Big Union is likely what sealed his death. In this masterwork of research, William Adler lays out the evidence that Joe Hill wasn't rightfully convicted of murder, the evidence was trumped up, barely circumstantial. Instead, Adler veritably proves that Joe was killed due to his radical beliefs...the fact that he was carrying an IWW red card when he was arrested.

The actual details of Joe's early life are scarce, born in Sweden he immigrated to the United States where he fell into grunt work as so many unskilled immigrants have. Adler shows remarkable skill in tracking the untrackable, an itinerant worker who hoboed from job to job. It isn't really until his songs become part of the IWW tradition that Joe comes into clear focus, even more so upon his arrest. It's the progression from worker to icon that garnered Joe Hill the modicum of fame he has today.

Adler uncovers much in this book. When Joe was on trial for his life, he could have exonerated himself but refused to speak, instead putting the burden of proof on the state. The state could never definitively prove Joe's guilt, but the course of injustice ran against him anyway. Adler goes on to find the most likely party, a career criminal that seems to be the actual murderer. The state knew him at the time, but never drew him as a suspect.

In the end, Joe Hill probably recognized his value as a martyr. His quote"Don't Mourn, Organize" still repeated to this day. The IWW would eventually lose steam, radical labor eventually stamped out by the imperious forces of capital. However, the message of Joe Hill, his fight for free speech, for justice and honor still rings true today.

[Martin Mccann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came to know of Joe Hill through the songs of Billy Bragg and Phil Ochs, who lead me to Earl Robinson and then back to the man himself. I always knew pieces of his story but this well researched and cleverly structured book filled in a lot of background details going back to his birth in Sweden, through to his stuggles, finding his voice and role as the songwriter par excellence for the Wobblies at a vital, violent and fractious time for the oppressed workers in the USA.

Adler forensically takes apart the case that lead to Hill's murder by the state of Utah and fingers the man, who was in all probability the actual slayer of the Morrisons. Joe's movement from contributer to the IWW Little Red Songbook into international icon is clearly developed by Adler, and his hypothesis is that Hill decided he would be worth more as a dead beacon rather than a living agitator during the course of his trial which probably counted as much towards his refusal to name the girl he got shot over, a shooting that lead to him being put in the frame for the murders for which he eventually died.

As well as providing a background to the unsafe trial and the machinations of the captialist class who took great pleasure in Joe's death, it is a good snapshot of what conditions were like for normal people back at the start of the 20th century, and how far some have come (and how far we still have to go to get equality).

Overall this is a great summary of the life and impact of Joe Hill as well as labour history in the industrialised world of the 20th century- don't waste your time mourning, organise!

[Terry Earley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Civilization levels can be measured by how a society deals with the "others" among us. Whether it is Wobbly labor agitators, illegal immigrants, Gays, Lesbians, emotionally disturbed, or simply vocal opponents of the status quo and "conventional wisdom". In this country, everyone must be offered an opportunity for expression. As we live now in a time where suppression of free speech is again an issue, Adler's book is a stark reminder of how important these freedoms are.

In the early 20th Century, the U.S. found itself with millions of newly arrived immigrants, but unable to absorb them all into the labor force. Many of these unskilled young men wandered the country looking for work. That attracted unscrupulous employers and labor contractors and created unreasonable fear among long established Americans.

What happened to Joe Hillstrom in Utah was tragic and unjust, but could have happened in many other cities in the U.S. We seem to want to suspend or make an exception to the rule of law when we feel threatened (or are told we are threatened).

Joe Hill (Hillstrom) is long forgotten by Utahns and Americans in general. The American labor movement owes a large debt of gratitude to fighters like the Wobblies and others. I kept wondering as I read, whether I would have been so courageous.

[Bap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Hill would be occupying wall street right and raising hell against the inequities of our society. But the times back 100 years ago were immeasurably harsher for the marginal working class. The USA was a developing country based on cheap wages and no safety net. The IWW pushed for industrial unionism: one big union and endorsed strikes and sabotage to prolong work. A two day job could become a five day job if the work was stretched out. Hill an immigrant from Sweden had become a troubadour for the Wobblies and his songs were published by the IWW in the little red song book, songs of protest. His life was cut short when he was arrested for the murder of a shop keeper. He was given a mockery of a trial and this book presents strong evidence that he may have been innocent. In the 17 months from his trial till his execution by firing squad, he became a celebrity and a cause. A martyr. His last wishwas that he not be buried in Utah.
The iWW lasted only a dozen years before they were smashed in the red scare during and after WW I but in that period they participated in celebrated strikes in Lawrence, Mass and Patterson New Jersey. They engaged in free speech fights throughout the west . They planted seeds for the rise of industrial unionism in the 30's and they inspired Woody Gutherie who in turn inspired Bob Dylan. Not a bad legacy

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The legend of labor activist and IWW songwriter Joe Hill remains compelling even a century after his unjust execution for a murder he did not commit -- and in this book, author William Adler offers strong new evidence to disprove the state of Utah's profoundly weak case against Hill (and explains how Hill really received his gunshot wound on the night of the fateful crime a few miles away.) Adler also sheds new light on Hill's early life in Sweden, his unlikely evolution from an unknown immigrant in New York to the IWW's most powerful recruiting tool in the West and, finally, his carefully considered decision to become a martyr for his beloved cause. Like many legends, the truth about Joe Hill's itinerant life is plenty dramatic and needs no embellishment. Adler's research is superb, covering Hill's childhood and his near-fatal bout with pneumonia to his and the Wobblies' involvement in the Mexican Revolution to the spirited protest songs he wrote that inspired the likes of Woody Guthrie and Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen. Hill was a hugely influential figure in the American labor movement, and this book does his legacy justice.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading the book on February 28, 2014. It was quite frankly one of the best books I've ever read.

I must admit of a certain bias since I went to grade, junior high and high school with him. We have a mutual close friend who remarked that he "must be the most conservative (politically) person who's read the book."

I do not think the fact that being relatively conservative makes a difference. No conservative in his right mind would advocate the kind of working conditions and deprivations of rights that were typical during that era. Unfortunately, those conditions are prevalent in overseas countries that now manufacture a large share of our imports.

Politics and current events aside the book was excellent both as a biography and a picture of the times. Both the U.S. and Joe Hill's native Sweden at the turn if the last century are described in detail. I learned a lot and I consider myself a knowledgeable history buff.

This book is hard to improve upon. A solid "five stars."