Set the Earth on Fire: The Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 and the Birth of the Police

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  • Prix régulier $27.93
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    David Correia

    Publisher: Haymarket Books

    Year: 2024

    Format: Paperback

    Size: 288 pages

    ISBN: 9798888900901

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An eye-opening narrative of the Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, showing how the strike—and the violent backlash that ensued—reveal the genesis of modern policing. In the early years of the 20th century, in the coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania, nearly 150,000 miners took part in one of the most critical events in the history of US labor organizing. The brutal response by the state of Pennsylvania—as well as the federal government—inaugurated the structure and power of policing that we know today.

In this gripping account of the Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, scholar and activist David Correia takes readers through the story of the United Mine Workers of America, their struggle against systems of private policing—which were present in practically every industry in the US—and the development of public, professionalized, state-sanctioned and state-serving police.

The demands of their strike included shorter work days, higher wages, and safer conditions in the deadly mines. However, their labor was crucial to westward expansion, colonial occupations in the Caribbean and the Philippines, and many burgeoning industries in the US. To keep the fires of capitalism burning, industrialists prodded the state and federal governments to intervene. Together, they established the first uniformed police force of its kind, a model soon emulated in other states.

What People Are Saying

"David Correia has excavated a trove of forgotten or little-known history from the hard coal of Pennsylvania, culminating in the question that remains with us today— just who are the police meant to protect and serve?" John Sayles

"This terrific book documents coal operators’ violent deployment of private industrial police to infiltrate anthracite coal miners’ organizing and defeat their 1902 strike. Convinced that a public police force would ensure greater 'professionalism,' Progressive Era reformers subsequently secured taxpayer financing—and the legitimated use of violence—for state police who to this day undermine workers’ power, especially during strikes. Drawing on miners’ own words, Correia vividly brings to life this intense and far-reaching struggle. His passionate writing and fierce analysis make for historical story telling at its best. This book is vital for anyone interested in the nexus of labor, class relations, and the police power of the carceral state." Barbara Ellen Smith, author, Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners and the Struggle over Black Lung Disease


"A breath of fresh air in writing the history of working people. Correia dramatically captures the drama of class warfare in the coal fields and convincingly connects attacks on labor organizing with important questions regarding the history of public and private policing in the United States." David Roediger, author recently of The Sinking Middle Class

Tags: David Correia ....... Haymarket Books ....... history ....... labor ....... labor history ....... policing and repression ....... united states .......