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"Big Trouble begins on a snowy evening at Christmastime 1905 in the little town of Caldwell, Idaho, to which the state's former governor, Frank Steunenberg, had returned to head his family bank while contemplating his political future. As he walked home that night, he sensed all about him the bold, exuberant, unashamedly acquisitive spirit of Caldwell's young entrepreneurs, who - as his brother had written - were "here for the money." Like so many in the West at that time, these brothers believed their prospects for enriching themselves were limitless, that the future opened wide before them." "And yet the governor suffered premonitions that he and his neighbors weren't fully in control of their own destiny, that something malign threatened their well-being." "Now, as he followed the plume of his frozen breath, his boots crunching eight inches of freshly fallen snow, he turned through his garden gate and a bomb attached to the gatepost blew him "into eternity."" "Authorities threw a dragnet around the town, and soon the state placed the investigation in the hands of America's most renowned detective, James McParland of the Pinkerton Agency. Now sixty-two, McParland hankered after one more coup to top off his glittering career. Before long, he extracted an astonishing confession from an itinerant "sheep dealer" named Harry Orchard, who admitted setting the bomb that killed the governor and said the murder had been commissioned by "Big Bill" Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners in retaliation for the harsh tactics that Steunenberg had used to put down a miners' "insurrection" in northern Idaho six years before." "In the summer of 1907 Haywood went on trial for his life in Boise, defended by Clarence Darrow, the country's most famous defense attorney, and prosecuted by William Borah, a golden-throated orator just elected Idaho's junior senator. For three months they did combat with lofty rhetoric and sly espionage."
"Big Trouble is both a narrative of a sensational murder case and a social tapestry. It is richly peopled with vivid characters: Operative 21, Pinkerton's daring undercover agent who penetrated to the heart of Darrow's defense team; E.H. Harriman, the icy railroad magnate; William Howard Taft, the gargantuan secretary of war; Jacob Fillius, the Denver mining lawyer who secretly bankrolled the prosecution on behalf of Colorado's mine owners; Eugene Debs, the fiery Socialist leader; the fearsome gunslingers Charlie Siringo and Bob Meldrum." "At times the book seems like a nonfiction Ragtime, for some most unlikely figures found their way to the trial or its environs that summer: among them, Ethel Barrymore, the most glamorous young actress of her day; Walter Johnson, perhaps the greatest pitcher who ever threw a baseball; Hugo Munsterberg, director of the Harvard Psychology Laboratory; and Gifford Pinchot, the lanky chief forester of the United States and confidant of President Roosevelt."--Jacket.… (altro)
One of the best history books I've read about America. In the author's note at the beginning, Lukas lays out his reason for writing the book and covering it the way he did. It is a big sprawling book and covers a huge amount of background. In a lot of ways the book is more context than subject. ( )
Historical drama about the investigation of the assassination of an ex-Governor of Idaho in late December 1905; takes readers on various excursions in the life and times of US at the turn of the century; power, wealth, capital and labour, lead prosecutors, Sen. William Edgar Borah; the lead defense attorney, Clarence Darrow; James McParland, a Pinkerton agent, social conglomerates, miners' federation, railroads, small western town, gunslingers.
Had J. Anthony Lukas chosen to write a straightforward history of the murder of the former governor of Idaho, Frank Steunenberg, and the conspiracy trial that arose therefrom, the book, "Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America," would have been 200 pages long instead of the present 754 pages. But, oh how much the poorer we all would have been! In a remarkable feat of research and writing, Lukas spins together an unbelievably rich tapestry of politics, crime and culture to dress the framework of murder and intrigue, so improbably set in turn-of-the-previous-century Idaho. I am a native Idahoan, yet I learned more of Idaho history, labor wars, criminal detection, class warfare and political and legal shenanigans than I thought possible. And this does not exhaust the multitude of other topics addressed. For example, on the slenderest thread of connection to the trial of the conspirators in Boise, Lukas manages to interweave a charming and fascinating history of baseball in Southern Idaho in 1906-07 which launched the career of one of the greatest pitchers of all time, Walter Johnson. Yet he manages to do so without losing the reader or the main topic - the criminal trial. The writing is accessible and extremely enjoyable. Lukas's own political stance in refrence to the happenings can be apprehended, yet there is an even-handedness throughout that saves the book from becoming a preachy polemic. How unfortunate that Lukas took his own life the day he made final changes to the manuscript. The seven years he put into the reseach for this book were not wasted, but it is sad to know that there will be no more such writing from this author. ( )
This book's core concerns itself with early 20th century labor violence in the western mines, but thereafter sprawls wondrously through all sorts of historical asides, including the history of the Pinkerton Detective agency. Whereever Lukas takes you, you enjoy the ride and he seems to capture an era in American history through the single incident of a bomb explosion that killed a former governor of Idaho and the ensuing trial of its alleged perpetrators. ( )
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"Since the trouble largely originates in hostile organizations of men known as labor unions, I should suggest a law making the formation of such unions or kindred societies a crime. Surely history furnishes argument sufficiently in favor of such a course." -General Henry Clay Merriam, 1899
"Mr. Hawley says they have made trouble and you ought to get rid of them, and a good way to begin is to hang the secretary-treasurer. That is the way to begin to get rid of the Western Federation of Miners, because they have made trouble. Yes, they have made trouble, thank God, and more power to them. Nothing good in this world ever came excepting through trouble and tribulation and toil." -Clarence Darrow, closing argument, 1907
"The Modern Sleuth sees the need and listens to the call. He organizes a system, a business. He establishes bureaus of information, puts men in the factories to report disaffection and to stir up trouble, if none is brewing." -Robin Dunbar, The Detective Business, 1909
"When a detective dies, he goes so low that he has to climb a ladder to get into Hell--and he is not a welcome guest there. When his Satanic Majesty sees him coming, he says to his imps, 'Go get a big bucket of pitch and a lot of sulphur, give them to that fellow and put him outside. Let him start a Hell of his own. We don't want him in here, starting trouble.' " -Big Bill Haywood, 1911
Dedica
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To Christopher William Lukas my brother, my friend
Incipit
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Author's Note I'm writing in Suite 306 of the Idanha, once Idaho's grand hotel, now a creaking relic of its former splendor, operated by the Heaven on Earth Inns Corporation, a subsidiary of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation Program.
It began to snow just before dawn, chalky flakes tumbling throuh the hush of the sleeping town, quilting the pastures, tracing fence rails and porch posts along the dusky lanes.
Citazioni
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If, four years after the Boise trial, these prominent Socialists wrote freely to one another about the guilt of Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone, what does this tell us about who struck down the governor on that snowy night in Caldwell?
"Big Trouble begins on a snowy evening at Christmastime 1905 in the little town of Caldwell, Idaho, to which the state's former governor, Frank Steunenberg, had returned to head his family bank while contemplating his political future. As he walked home that night, he sensed all about him the bold, exuberant, unashamedly acquisitive spirit of Caldwell's young entrepreneurs, who - as his brother had written - were "here for the money." Like so many in the West at that time, these brothers believed their prospects for enriching themselves were limitless, that the future opened wide before them." "And yet the governor suffered premonitions that he and his neighbors weren't fully in control of their own destiny, that something malign threatened their well-being." "Now, as he followed the plume of his frozen breath, his boots crunching eight inches of freshly fallen snow, he turned through his garden gate and a bomb attached to the gatepost blew him "into eternity."" "Authorities threw a dragnet around the town, and soon the state placed the investigation in the hands of America's most renowned detective, James McParland of the Pinkerton Agency. Now sixty-two, McParland hankered after one more coup to top off his glittering career. Before long, he extracted an astonishing confession from an itinerant "sheep dealer" named Harry Orchard, who admitted setting the bomb that killed the governor and said the murder had been commissioned by "Big Bill" Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners in retaliation for the harsh tactics that Steunenberg had used to put down a miners' "insurrection" in northern Idaho six years before." "In the summer of 1907 Haywood went on trial for his life in Boise, defended by Clarence Darrow, the country's most famous defense attorney, and prosecuted by William Borah, a golden-throated orator just elected Idaho's junior senator. For three months they did combat with lofty rhetoric and sly espionage."
"Big Trouble is both a narrative of a sensational murder case and a social tapestry. It is richly peopled with vivid characters: Operative 21, Pinkerton's daring undercover agent who penetrated to the heart of Darrow's defense team; E.H. Harriman, the icy railroad magnate; William Howard Taft, the gargantuan secretary of war; Jacob Fillius, the Denver mining lawyer who secretly bankrolled the prosecution on behalf of Colorado's mine owners; Eugene Debs, the fiery Socialist leader; the fearsome gunslingers Charlie Siringo and Bob Meldrum." "At times the book seems like a nonfiction Ragtime, for some most unlikely figures found their way to the trial or its environs that summer: among them, Ethel Barrymore, the most glamorous young actress of her day; Walter Johnson, perhaps the greatest pitcher who ever threw a baseball; Hugo Munsterberg, director of the Harvard Psychology Laboratory; and Gifford Pinchot, the lanky chief forester of the United States and confidant of President Roosevelt."--Jacket.
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