The Battle For Homestead, 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel

by Paul Krause

In The Battle for Homestead, Paul Krause calls upon the methods and insights of labor history, intellectual history, anthropology, and the history of technology to situate the events of the lockout and their significance in the broad context of America’s Guilded Age. Utilizing extensive archival material, much of it heretofore unknown, he reconstructs the social, intellectual, and political climate of the burgeoning post-Civil War steel industry.

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

584 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Krause puts the Homestead Strike of July 1892 into deep historical context. He describes the development of the iron and steel industry, western Pennsylvania, the place of organized labor, the workers, the business leaders, the local political organization, the place of immigrants, the effect of previous strikes on all, etc. Andrew Carnegie, of course, comes off very poorly. Krause plums the huge canyon between the steel baron's very liberal and public statements on how one should treat their workers and what he actually did to them. I found the discussion on Carnegie's philanthropy quite interesting.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

very biased view (communism/labor republicanism), enough facts to form an alternative opinion.

[Baris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teoriye dönük bir tartışma içermese de şimdiye kadar okuduğum, Amerikan İşçi Hareketleri Tarihi üzerine yazılmış en iyi kitap bu oldu. Yazar her ne kadar "sınıf" kavramını kullanmaktan kaçınsa da, kimin tarafında olduğu konusunda herhangi bir kuşku bırakmıyor. Bunu yaparken de kafa göz yaran bir teorizmden değil, kılı kırk yaran bir arşivsel çalışmadan yola çıkması kitabın en büyük artısı.