Customer Reviews

Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is a lot to like about BLOOD PASSION: THE LUDLOW MASSACRE AND CLASS WARFARE IN THE AMERICAN WEST by Scott Martelle. Here you will find an intricate description of life in a "company" town. It's hard to imagine today, how less than a century ago, company towns were commonplace. These were towns founded around a single business entity, in this case, coal mining, whereby the company that owned the coal mines, in essence owned the town and its' inhabitants.

We study a society where it was a firing offense for an employee to purchase from anywhere other than a company owned store, where prices were set by the employer. They lived in company owned housing, in this case, tents. Their entire existence depended almost entirely on the provisions made by their employer. It's not a far stretch to say, these people existed largely as indentured servants.

Martelle gives an unbiased narrative of the events that spawned the Ludlow Massacre. There is plenty of blame to go around for the massacre that occurred in 1914, and Martelle spreads that blame rather evenly between the striking workers, the strikebreakers, the owners and the National Guardsmen that became embroiled in the southern Colorado mining labor problems.

Perhaps there will always remain a slight wedge between employers and employees, but hopefully never again the deep chasm that existed in the early industrialization of America.

The book is a very interesting read, though at times a bit dry and slow. Martelle is not the most colorful or flamboyant of writers, but does convey his message and story with a succinct style readers will appreciate. The book will appeal to varying audiences, from those studying labor problems in America to the study of the western states. You'll find a graphic description of life a century ago in an existence hardly imaginable today.

I knew nothing about the southern Colorado coal strikes and the Ludlow Massacre when I started Scott Martelle's new book, Blood Passion. By the time I finished it -- just two days after starting it -- I understood not only how, but why, the violent strike ended the way it did.
Martelle's prose style is dense with facts, yet elegant and easy. The writing is beautifully done, and the story itself is so compelling that it's easy to understand why he became preoccupied with it.
Each decision along the way, by owners and strikers, deepens the chasm between the two, until at last the line is not drawn but engraved in the sand and there can be no winners.
Whatever your interest in the book -- through the lens of labor history, or western studies, or the social strata of the times -- you will find much here that will resonate for a long time. Martelle, who weathered the nasty Detroit newspaper strike in the mid-90s and did not cross picket lines, gives neither strikers nor owners a bye in this book. (Full disclosure: I, too, weathered that strike by honoring the picket lines.)

There is a lot of empty space in Southern Colorado. This book masterfully fills in some of this space with beliefs, blood, ghosts, and little known Western history. A fine read, and thoughtfully written with insights and even handedness.

A wonderful walk through the events and people involved in Colorado coal mining in the early 20th century. A refreshing perspective that looks at the culmination of actions and personalities.

Personally, another piece was clarified in my ancestral puzzle. My grandmother was born in the Berwind mine camp and with my immigrant Croatian greatgrandparents, resided in the Ludlow area during the books timeframe.

Too often history is written by the winners but not in this case. This should be required reading in school along with the Iron Heel by London. The money changers and robber barons of today would have you believe that they are benevolent employers when in actuality they are direct decendants of the main players in this book. If they could they would treat us just the same. Get it and read it to educate yourself of the forgotten struggle of labor in this country.

Excellent book on the Ludlow Massacre. Well researched and written. History buffs will really enjoy this one.

I recall growing up in Colorado only 100-miles from Ludlow and never learning of the tragic events that unfolded there. My schooling was in the 1940's and 50's, so it wasn't too long afterwards. I guess those events of 1914 were part of the buried history of an area that many folks wanted to keep buried.

Thanks Mr. Martelle for writing the history all Coloradoans and others should know about. The book is a highly detailed account of the armed struggle between unionizing coal miners and resisting mine operators. It's more like a battle account as we follow the shifting lines of union miners, on one side, and industry hirelings, on the other. Add the behind-the-scenes manueverings of the various political factions, and it's a pretty crowded account.
Fortunately, the author attaches a helpful appendix listing the key figures for handy reference.

However, I think readers would have benefitted from an area map of southern Colorado and, if possible, a local map of the key struggle sites. In their absence, it's rather difficult to visualize the ebb and flow of the many military-like movements. Still, the text remains a riveting one as we follow events on the ground and how they were received by such major politicians and key industrialists as President Woodrow Wilson and John D. Rockefeller Jr., respectively. What's at stake is an epical one, that is who will control conditions in the mines-- workers or profits.

I don't know about recent years, but in my day that Hispanic southern part of the state was largely ignored by the Anglo northern half, and even today remains a long way from such touristy watering holes as Aspen and Telluride. Nonetheless, thanks to Martelle's excellent work, I now know a lot more about a subject and an area I should have learned about, lo, so many years ago.

This is a very well written and documented book relating to union organizing in the early years of the 20th century. A must read for everyone interest in the struggle for fair and safe working conditions in an industry that still has deplorable working conditions that are a constant threat to the lives of the coal miners.

Excerpt from page 1, Introduction:

"What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it."
-- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, from the introduction to Philosophy of History, 1832"