The St. Louis Commune of 1877: Communism in the Heartland PDF
Preview The St. Louis Commune of 1877: Communism in the Heartland
“The St. Louis Commune of 1877 provides a rich and riveting description of a working- class uprising in nineteenth- century America. . . . Dreams of social justice combined with crushing poverty and brutal police repression created an explosive revolutionary mix. It’s a history with obvious relevance for the present.” —W arren Rosenblum, professor of history at Webster University, St. Louis “Mark Kruger’s new book places the events in East St. Louis, Illinois, that pre- cipitated a general strike in St. Louis in their true historical and transnational context. . . . A truly original and pathbreaking study.” —M elvyn Dubofsky, coauthor of Labor in America: A History “We can’t begin to solve our current problems if we don’t understand the class nature of this society and the world. In the American Midwest, in the nineteenth century, ordinary workers who were also intellectuals and revolutionaries met the crisis of their times with imagination, solidarity, and courage. They were soundly defeated, alas. Why was this history, finally uncovered by Mark Kruger, buried for almost 150 years? The Masters of the Universe don’t want us to know that workers fought back.” —M ark Rudd, author of Underground: My Life with sds and the Weathermen “Mark Kruger captures the excitement of the hot summer in 1877 when workers in St. Louis, then America’s fourth- largest city, initiated the first general strike in American history. . . . In many ways the fundamental elements that resulted in the St. Louis Commune in 1877 are not unlike those that characterize American society today. Falling wages and standards of living, attacks on unions, gaps in wealth, and street demonstrations and violence parallel the current problems faced by everyday Americans, making this book especially relevant to our times.” —B ob Swacker, author of New York City History “Mark Kruger has made a significant contribution to understanding the events of the St. Louis area in the late nineteenth century. Not since 1966, with the publication of The Reign of the Rabble, have we heard some of the details of those violent and fearful days. Now some fifty years later we receive, in a sense, the details of the details. . . . It is [Kruger’s] use of a diversity of sources that gives this work its richness.” —E lizabeth Kolmer, retired professor of American studies at Saint Louis University “Mark Kruger has brought alive the labor struggles of the nineteenth century as they culminated in the St. Louis Commune. He skillfully shows how the 1848 revolutions in Europe, the Paris Commune of 1871, the First International, the 1873 depression, and the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 all converged to produce remarkable events in St. Louis. This is an excellent example of a local history set on a world stage.” —C liff DuRand, research associate at the Center for Global Justice and author of Moving beyond Capitalism “The St. Louis Commune of 1877 brings new life to the story of the St. Louis Com- mune, demonstrating its connections to the German revolution of 1848, the Paris Commune, and the First International. The commune, which has too often been seen as a story of only local interest, can now be fully understood in its national and international context.” —K risten Anderson, associate professor of history at Webster University “The Great Upheaval of 1877 was the first of the great mass strikes that have periodically shaken the United States, and its acme was the St. Louis general strike, in which workers took over and ran one of America’s major cities. The St. Louis Commune of 1877 provides the fascinating backstory of the German immigrants—m any veterans of the European revolutions of 1848—w ho helped define the character and provide the leadership for America’s first general strike.” —J eremy Brecher, labor historian, filmmaker, and author of Strike! The St. Louis Commune of 1877 Communism in the Heartland M a r k K r u g e r University of Nebraska Press Lincoln © 2021 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Kruger, Mark, 1948– author. Title: The St. Louis Commune of 1877: communism in the heartland / Mark Kruger. Other titles: Communism in the heartland Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2020057472 isbn 9781496228130 (paperback) isbn 9781496228925 (epub) isbn 9781496228932 (pdf) Subjects: lcsh: General Strike, Saint Louis, Mo., 1877. | Working class— Economic conditions— Missouri— Saint Louis. | Socialism— History— 19th century. | Forty- Eighters (American immigrants)— Missouri— Saint Louis. | Workingmen’s Party of the United States— History. | International Workingmen’s Association (1864– 1876) | bisac: political science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post- Communism & Socialism | history / United States / State & Local / Midwest (ia, il, in, ks, mi, mn, mo, nd, ne, oh, sd, wi) Classification: lcc hd5326.s24 k78 2021 | ddc 331.892/5097786609034— dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057472 Set in Arno by Laura Buis. Designed by N. Putens. Dedicated to my wife . . . Deborah Benoit Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. Revolution Comes to St. Louis 7 2. Revolution in Europe 17 3. After the Civil War 37 4. The Paris Commune 63 5. The First International 89 6. The Condition of the American Working Class 115 7. German Immigration 133 8. The Railroad Strike 159 9. The St. Louis Commune 187 Epilogue 245 Notes 259 Bibliography 275 Index 283
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