J.A. Lukas "Big Trouble."
J. Anthony Lukas won two Pulitzer Prizes: the first for reporting at "The New York Times," where he served for a decade as a foreign and domestic correspondent; the second for "Common Ground," which also brought him the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.
Recounts the trial of a radical union leader for the murder of Idaho's former state governor, a case that ultimately involved President Theodore Roosevelt and the tumultuous relationship between capital, labor, and the law in the 1900s.
This is the story of the miners’ strike and rebellion in Idaho during the 1890s and the first decade of the twentieth century. It focuses on the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steuenberg in 1905. Members of the Western Federation of Miners were immediately suspected as the governor, who was originally elected on a pro-labor platform changed his views once in office. As the book’s subtitle explains it was “a murder in a small Western town” that set off “a struggle for the soul of America.”
The book liner goes on to describe it as “richly peopled with vivid characters” and quite relatable ones, too, I might add. Included are both President Theodore Roosvelt and the future President William Howard Taft, the Pinkerton Detective Agency represented by James McParland, Clarence Darrow, attorney for the defense, William E Borah, attorney for the prosecution, Eugene Debs, the labor leader of the Socialist Party, Ethel Barrymore, in her capacity as a court spectator, Charlie Siringo, a straight faced gunslinger for the prosecution with a deadly aim and Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt’s chief forester and first head of the National Parks System.
This book is the true story, based on eyewitness accounts, court testimony and the meticulous research done by the author of the events immediately following the crime through the trial. It includes national politics, political scheming and maneuvering, vestiges of the “Wild West”, the emerging labor movement throughout the US, gangs, outlaws, hoodlums and double agents. There are many times when people appear other than who they are in reality. Masks, mirrors, spin, lies.
Simon & Schuster. First Edition, 1997.
New book. Very minor shelf wear from rubbing.