Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Injustice exposed in this compelling tale., May 21, 2003
The Mollies Were Men recounts a sordid episode in Pennsylvania and U.S. history when Irish coal miners were wrongly viewed as violent, evil men. Some crimes were committed by these men, but the facts are stark and condemning on the coal mine owners and the local authorities who prosecuted the miners. A litany of injustice and prosecutorial misconduct is given, such as no Irishman served on the juries when Irishmen were on trial. One entire jury couldn't even speak English!
The result of these sham trials were that 25 men were hung, most of whom were found guilty by association with the Mollies. One of the most startling facts was that the violence in the Pennsylvania coal fields only began when a Pinkerton spy, hired by the coal mine owners, became a Mollie and incited the men to violence. The spy did nothing to stop the murders, then testified at the trials to convict Irish coal miners. Dr. Barrett makes a compelling case for this mine owner spy being the reason the coal fields exploded in violence.
The coal mine owners deserve special attention as being extremely greedy and violently anti-union. Their mission was clear: to destroy unionism anywhere and anyhow they could. This book also exposes the political links between the coal mine owners, the prosecutors, and the governor of Pennsylvania at the time.
The injustice done was so egregious that the head of the Mollies, Jack Kehoe who was hanged in the 1880s, was pardoned by Pennsylvania's governor almost 100 years later.
Kudos to Dr. Barrett for telling a little-known tale which needed to be told.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pardons for everyone!, November 16, 2004
There is enough evidence here to say that they all the trials should be mistrials. It also says something about the politics in the country right after the Civil War and how little the parties may have changed since that time to now. Gowen was an early version of the ENRON CEO, a little before his time.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Predictable and Disappointing Tale, May 28, 2003
By A Customer
This self-published book purports to tell the story of the Molly Maguires, the band of Irish immigrants who terrorized the anthracite coal fields in the 1870s. It's an odd, disorganized re-write of an odd, disorganized book which was first published by the author's father back in the 1960s. This revised edition is, alas, even more one-sided and shallow in its approach than the original. At least the original edition acknowledged that there were unanswered questions. This book tries to answer them by filling in the blanks with the author's personal opinions. Unfortunately the author has a limited understanding of the events and times he is writing about. He relies on selective old newspaper articles and, to the extent any analysis is added, it predictably takes the old left-wing labor approach, essentially accusing the prosecutors, judges, coal companies, police and public of engaging in a monstrous anti-Irish conspiracy. Don't look for any sympathy here for the murder victims who were gunned down in cold blood by the Mollies. Don't look for any new proof of prosecutorial corruption or even closely reasoned analysis. Look, instead, for innuendo, unsupported allegations, suspicions and personal opinions dressed up as history. It's an approach that was popularized by early Twentieth Century labor activists and has been de-bunked many times by more competent historians.
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