Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre [Paperback]

Zeese Papanikolas MA BA (Author), Wallace Stegner (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1991

Louis Tikas was a union organizer killed in the battle between striking coal miners and state militia in Ludlow, Colorado, in 1914. In Buried Unsung he stands for a whole generation of immigrant workers who, in the years before World War I, found themselves caught between the realities of industrial America and their aspirations for a better life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Papanikolas brings to Buried Unsung a gift for moving prose and an intimate understanding of those Greek cultural values that affected the Ludlow strikers. . . . At every step, the author merges the written record with oral material and his personal experiences to give unbelievable power to the tale."—American Historical Review

(American Historical Review )

"[A] stunning book, one of the most exciting I have read in a decade. . . . The mystery and drama of [Papanikola''s] journey to resurrect Tikas and discover his own soul still haunt me weeks after I finished reading the book."—Harry Mark Petrakis, Chicago Tribune

(Chicago Tribune )

About the Author

Zeese Papanikolas, who lives in California, is the author, with Frank Bergon, of Looking Far West: The Search for the American West in History, Myth and Literature (1978).

Product Details

• Paperback: 331 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (May 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803287275
• ISBN-13: 978-0803287273
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,438,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing attempt at biography...., January 16, 2011

By 

Panayoti Kelaidis "Senior Curator, Denver Bot... (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre (Paperback)

How do you go about writing a biography about someone who lived almost 100 years ago and left almost no trace except for a spectacular obituary? Louis Tikas was an early casualty of one the largest labor dispute in Western history: the Ludlow Massacre. This book weaves a portrait of the man based partly on conjecture and on the fragments of information that have survived, and the remembrances of the last of his contemporaries who were interviewed for this book. The result is something of a tour de force: but so little has been written about the Greek immigration to America, this book should merit a space on the bookshelves of anyone either intrigued by the struggles of Labor in the early 20th Century, and especially anyone of Greek ancestry.

4.0 out of 5 stars Anthony DeStefanis Review of Buried Unsung, September 14, 2011

By 

Anthony DeStefanis (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Buried Unsung: Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre (Paperback)

An eclectic book with a big heart that evocatively tells the story of the 1913-14 southern Colorado coal strike that led to the Ludlow Massacre. Zeese Papanikolas uses members of his family as stand-ins as he traces the life of Louis Tikas, A Greek immigrant who became an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America and an important figure in organizing and maintaining the Ludlow tent colony. Tikas was killed at Ludlow by the Colorado National Guard and became a martyr for unionism in the U.S. Papanikolas tells a story that places ethnicity as its center, but he also successfully captures the world of the rapidly industrializing American West. Students will have a difficult time following the story if they don't already know something about the 1913-14 strike. I would recommend pairing this book with Scott Martelle's Blood Passion, which they would read first, to give students a good grounding in what happened before, during, and after the strike.