Franklin Henry Little (1878-1917), an organizer for the Western
Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW),
fought in some of the early twentieth century's most contentious
labor and free-speech struggles. Following his lynching in Butte,
Montana, his life and legacy became shrouded in tragedy and family
secrets. In Frank Little and the IWW, author Jane Little Botkin
chronicles her great-granduncle's fascinating life and reveals its
connections to the history of American labor and the first Red
Scare. Beginning with Little's childhood in Missouri and
territorial Oklahoma, Botkin recounts his evolution as a renowned
organizer and agitator on behalf of workers in corporate
agriculture, oil, logging, and mining. Frank Little traveled the
West and Midwest to gather workers beneath the banner of the
Wobblies (as IWW members were known), making soapbox speeches on
city street corners, organizing strikes, and writing polemics
against unfair labor practices. His brother and sister-in-law also
joined the fight for labor, but it was Frank who led the charge -
and who was regularly threatened, incarcerated, and assaulted for
his efforts. In his final battles in Arizona and Montana, Botkin
shows, Little and the IWW leadership faced their strongest opponent
yet as powerful copper magnates countered union efforts with
deep-laid networks of spies and gunmen, an antilabor press, and
local vigilantes. For a time, Frank Little's murder became a
rallying cry for the IWW. But after the United States entered the
Great War and Congress passed the Sedition Act (1918) to ensure
support for the war effort, many politicians and corporations used
the act to target labor ""radicals,"" squelch dissent, and inspire
vigilantism. Like other wage-working families smeared with the
traitor label, the Little family endured raids, arrests, and
indictments in IWW trials. Having scoured the West for firsthand
sources in family, library, and museum collections, Botkin melds
the personal narrative of an American family with the story of the
labor movements that once shook the nation to its core. In doing
so, she throws into sharp relief the lingering consequences of
political repression.
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