The Molly Maguires Book Review

During mid 19th century, coal mining dominated North Eastern Pennsylvania, a state with great potential of anthracite coal. In 1870s, very powerful individuals controlled the coal fields and railroads. These individuals monopolized the coal industry recruiting immigrants to work for fewer wage than the American employees, luring them with promises of fortune. Hundreds of immigrants, transported by trains, replaced the local minors who were forced one by one to pave way for immigrants, either abandoning or re-treating the industry.

During those four years, many Jews died one way or another. But after 1938, all authority of imprisonment fell to the Nazis (www.ushmm.org Concentration Camps). This was the cause that forced nearly all Jews into cattle cars within a month. The Jews were convinced by the Nazis that they were just being relocated, but they were going to the so-called “Shower rooms,” but they were really gas chambers disguised(Blohm 48).

Because of the ship’s harsh conditions, lots of immigrants died before they reach their goal. By 1800s, America was called the melting pot, this term refers to the different cultures, language and traditions settled in the United States. Europeans immigrants faced issues. In the late 1800, cities were run by groups that controlled all the activities, government and businesses, this groups mostly discriminated immigrants, which it led to the formation of gangsters throughout the 1800s. Discrimination and the continuing of the civil war led to the formation of gangsters in New York City throughout the 1800s.

With the closure of railroads “vital trade arteries in twenty-seven states were stalled and snarled, which meant delays and disruptions for travelers, manufactured goods, fuel, livestock, produce, and- most important- the U.S. mail (57.) ” During the time of the Pullman Strike, urban newspapers “had become a vital part of American public life (58.)” Both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Times contributed to the production of stories of the Pullman Strike.

Social injustices have been an apparent theme throughout history for many years. Anti-Semitism and Racial discrimination are just two of the many examples of social injustices that have been exhibited in our society. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, both novels share the theme of Social Injustice. Narrated by Death, The Book Thief follows nine-year old Liesel Meminger during World War two in Germany. Liesel and her family are on their way to Molching when Liesel

That is exactly what millions of Irish immigrants did when left with no choice but to leave their Irish homelands due to the famine that plagued them from the time of 1845-1852. James R. Barrett describes the struggle and changes the Irish people needed to make when coming to America and their hard attempts to disperse themselves into the multiethnic cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and many more. The integration of the immigrant people rested on the responsibility of the ever present Irish. To the new immigrants it seemed as if the Irish people were everywhere. They were constantly “…encountering Irish policemen, Irish politicians, Irish bureaucrats, Irish saloon keepers, Irish contractors, and Irish teachers…”

Many of America's leaders were assassinated such as John F. Kennedy and MLK. The motives to their assassinations were most from disagreements which is the same motive for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On April 14th 1865, John Wilkes, shot and killed Abraham Lincoln at a play at ford Theatre . John Wilkes Booth was born in Maryland and was born in 1838. He lived in the north during the civil War but but yet he still didn’t agree with Abraham Lincoln.

The article, “Immigrant America: A Portrait” written by Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut, discusses the many trials and tribulations immigrants have faced throughout the history of America, dating back to the Great European Wave In the 19th and 20th century. The Great European Wave, was the time in which 23 million European immigrants migrated to the U.S. mainly due to agricultural and industrial changes in their native countries that forced them out of their homes and in search of work. The authors discuss how a corrupt sheriff by the name of Joe Arpaio has been making the lives of Latin American immigrants living in Maricela County, Arizona, miserable. Arpaioo has harassed and treated the immigrants living in the county as if they’re

In 1915, a Jewish businessman Leo Frank was falsely accused of killing a worker, Mary Phlegem, in the pencil factory he managed. When the Georgia governor reduced Frank’s death sentence to life imprisonment due to lack of evidence, a mob dragged him and lynched him. He was given a posthumous pardon decades later when the evidence pointed to a janitor at the factory. Leo Frank tragedy caused “a ripple effect of fear among Jewish immigrants and Jewish Americans” (Anti-semitism in America). The lynching of Leo Frank was the beginning of two long decades of prejudicsm and hatred towards Jewish Americans in interwar America.

Also, religious officials such as priests were independent of the land and excluded from the Feudal Contract (Class Notes Dec 04 2017). However, an epidemic known as the Black Death was soon to reach the shores of Italy in the spring of 1348 and wipe out between 25% and 50% of Europe’s population. Many people who caught the disease had very short life expectancies and the disease was easily transmitted because there were three interrelated forms which could be caught in different ways (Boccaccio 1348). During this time, many people would blame each other for spreading or causing the Black Death and they would repent to God for mercy or forgiveness. Panic spread throughout the manors and people sought help from priests instead of doctors (Class Notes Jan 22 2018).

Molly Maguires, secret organization of coal miners supposedly responsible for acts of terrorism in the coalfields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, U.S., in the period from 1862 to 1876. The group named itself after a widow who led a group of Irish antilandlord agitators in the 1840s. When poor working conditions and employment discrimination led to assassinations and acts of sabotage by Irish-American workers in Pennsylvania 20 years later, the “Mollies” were blamed. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, a local Irish fraternal association, was thought to be a front for the Molly Maguires, and mine owners hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which sent James McParland to infiltrate the group. In a series of sensational trials in 1875–77,

The Battle of Blair Mountain was “the largest armed rebellion in America since the Civil War” (Grayson, “The Second Civil War...”). Miners in West Virginia rose up against the mine bosses, who were cutting wages and attacking the miners’ unions. Capitalism worked against the interests of the miners. The conditions of the miners were caused by the need of the capitalist mine owners to make profits. The mine owners hired detectives to attack the workers, who were trying to improve their conditions and fight for their rights.

During the Civil War, the capture of Large amounts of Prisoners became a common practice, and an exchange system developed. A prisoner could be exchanged for an enemy soldier, depending on his rank , and as a result, about 200,000 soldiers on both sides were freed. However, this exchange system stopped in 1864 when General Grant refused to trade any more captives in an attempt to wear down the South by attrition. This policy greatly affected the Confederacy. Prison conditions had been relatively good, but they quickly worsened.

By the mid-eighteenth century, tensions between the Native American tribes and English settlers had mounted to an all time high. Mistrust was frequent, as was betrayal. Fighting could break out in a minute, and then be finished the next. Political relationships were broken because of a war and massacre; the economy boomed because of barbaric markets & fur trade. Yet, a lasting effect took place after a war and fruit picking that shattered relations with the tribes for years to come.

World War One was a vicious four yearlong conflict that left few survivors in its wake, and devastated the world’s economy. The war commenced after the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s ArchDuke, Franz Ferdinand, and brought all the major European countries such as Germany, Italy, Great Britain, France, Serbia, Russia, and Austria-Hungary into the war. This was due to a system of alliances that linked the countries together, which forced countries even outside of Europe to join a war they had no part in, further escalating the problem. World War One was divided into two major alliances that fought against each other. As a result of Great Britain’s involvement, Canada was led into war as well, where Canadians distinguished themselves in battles