This is the highly readable, true story of the so-called Molly Maguires: militant Irish American coal miners persecuted by greedy coal miner owners and their allies in government. Set in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, this struggle illustrates the wider conflict between More...labor and capital in the post-Civil War United States.


Anthony Bimba's sympathetic account is well-researched and debunks the myth that the miners were `terrorists' hell-bent on plunging America into anarchy. The miners sought better pay and more freedom from company control. For this some paid with their lives as private and government harassment culminated in a series of legal lynchings. (More fair than other historians, Bimba actually lets the owners speak for themselves quoting amply from the man who orchestrated much of the companies' anti-labor campaign.)


This book was a major part of the Communist Party's attempts to revise our understanding of American history, in order to highlight the hidden struggles of the working-class towards freedom and correct the conservative bias of contemporary historians.