The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890s

Book excerpt: The Pullman strike of 1894 shut down the rail system from Chicago to the West Coast, culminating two decades of labor unrest and helping to define an epochal transition in American history. In this wide-ranging collection, leading labor historians use the prism of the Pullman strike to broaden our understanding of the crisis of the 1890s. By examining the strike in the context of continuities and changes in labor organization, the influences of gender and community, the public representation and contested meaning of labor conflict, the emergence of a new politics of progressive reform, the development of a regulatory state, and a changing legal environment, these essays resituate the Pullman conflict in its historical context. Illuminating one of the most important events in labor's past, The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890s testifies to the pivotal importance of the Pullman conflict and its aftermath for understanding the course of American history.