BIG TROUBLE: Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America

Simon & Schuster, 1997. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. New/As New. B&W era photo section. CONDITION: UNREAD 1997 Simon & Schuster large hardcover (blue boards) & dust jacket (in mylar cover), first edition, first printing. Tiny "repaired" tear bottom DJ panel at fold. B&W era photo section. CONTENT: Recounts the trial of a radical union leader for the murder of Idaho's former state governor, a case that ultimately involved President Theodore Roosevelt and the tumultuous relationship between capital, labor, and the law in the 1900s. Multiple Pulitzer Prize winner Lukas, who committed suicide at age 64, aspires in his final book to use the 1905 assassination of Frank Steunenberg, governor of Idaho, as a platform from which to survey the panorama of the turn-of-the-century's incessant labor strife. The murder, investigation, and trial quickly became a cause for business, labor, and law enforcement, both private and public. Lukas attempts to gather every thread of the events and actors' movements in the era's passionate, troubled labor history; he follows every digression and subplot and gives each character a minibiography. Given the fascinations of the subject and Lukas's skills as a wordsmith, individual segments of the book are most compelling indeed. [The characters in this story are amazing, ranging from Teddy Roosevelt to Ethel Barrymore (really????) to William Allen White, Clarence Darrow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Siringo, et al.]