Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW

The government used to respond to labor dissent by deputizing strikebreakers or calling out the state militia, but when the US entered World War I, a more coordinated national strategy was needed. The Department of Justice embarked on a sweeping new effort to prevent stoppages, targeting the Industrial Workers of the World, resulting in the largest mass trial in US history.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 30 April 2019
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press

Before World War I, the government's response to labor dissent was localized, ad hoc, and quasi-military. Sheriffs, mayors, or governors would deputize strikebreakers or call out the state militia, usually at the bidding of employers. When the United States entered the conflict in 1917, government and industry feared that strikes would endanger war production; a more coordinated, national strategy would be necessary. To prevent stoppages, the Department of Justice embarked on a sweeping new effort—replacing gunmen with lawyers. The department systematically targeted the nation's most radical and innovative union, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, resulting in the largest mass trial in U.S. history.

In the first legal history of this federal trial, Dean Strang shows how the case laid the groundwork for a fundamentally different strategy to stifle radical threats and had a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. As the trial unfolded, it became an exercise of raw force, raising serious questions about its legitimacy and revealing the fragility of a criminal justice system under great external pressure.

Weight: 628g
Dimension: 162 x 238 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780299323301