Overview

A monumental work, expansive in scope, covering the life, times, and culture of that most famous of the Wobblies-songwriter, poet, hobo, thinker, humorist, martyr-Joe Hill. It is a journey into the Wobbly culture that made Hill and the capitalist culture that killed him. Many aspects of the life and lore of Joe Hill receive their first and only discussion in IWW historian Franklin Rosemont's opus. In great detail, the issues that Joe Hill raised and grappled with in his life: capitalism, white supremacy, gender, religion, wilderness, law, prison, and industrial unionism are shown in both the context of Hill's life and for their enduring relevance in the century since his death. Collected too is Joe Hill's art, plus scores of other images featuring Hill-inspired art by IWW illustrators from Ralph Chaplin to Carlos Cortez, as well as contributions from many other labor artists. As Rosemont suggests in this remarkable book, Joe Hill never really died. He lives in the minds of young (and old) rebels as long as his songs are sung, his ideas are circulated, and his political descendants keep fighting for a better day.

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9781629631196

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Reviews

Rosemont s treatment of Joe Hill is passionate, polemical, and downright entertaining. What he gives us is an extended and detailed argument for considering both Hill and the IWW for their contributions toward creating an autonomous and uncompromising alternative culture. Gordon Simmons, Labor Studies Journal

Joe Hill has finally found a chronicler worthy of his revolutionary spirit, sense of humor, and poetic imagination. --Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams Rosemont's treatment of Joe Hill is passionate, polemical, and downright entertaining. What he gives us is an extended and detailed argument for considering both Hill and the IWW for their contributions toward creating an autonomous and uncompromising alternative culture. --Gordon Simmons, Labor Studies Journal Magnificent, practical, irreverent and (as one might say) magisterial, written in a direct, passionate, sometimes funny, deeply searching style. --Peter Linebaugh, author of Stop, Thief! Rosemont seems to have hunted down every available detail of Hill's short life and abiding legend. --Los Angeles Times It has been a long time since so much new material on Joe Hill and the Wobblies has been collected in one volume. All students of the IWW, labor cartoons and songs, radical humor, and the history of blue-collar countercultures in the U.S. will find this book indispensable. --Salvatore Salerno, editor of The Big Red Songbook

The investigation of Hill's occluded life story and the larger argument for Hill's significance are made here, more decisively than anywhere else made or likely ever to be made in historical scholarship. Paul Buhle, portside.org

Rosemont seems to have hunted down every available detail of Hill s short life and abiding legend. Los Angeles Times Joe Hill has finally found a chronicler worthy of his revolutionary spirit, sense of humor, and poetic imagination. Robin D. G. Kelley, author, Freedom Dreams Rosemont s treatment of Joe Hill is passionate, polemical, and downright entertaining. What he gives us is an extended and detailed argument for considering both Hill and the IWW for their contributions toward creating an autonomous and uncompromising alternative culture. Gordon Simmons, Labor Studies Journal The investigation of Hill's occluded life story and the larger argument for Hill's significance are made here, more decisively than anywhere else made or likely ever to be made in historical scholarship. Paul Buhle, portside.org

The investigation of Hill's occluded life story and the larger argument for Hill's significance are made here, more decisively than anywhere else made or likely ever to be made in historical scholarship. --Paul Buhle, portside.org Rosemont's treatment of Joe Hill is passionate, polemical, and downright entertaining. What he gives us is an extended and detailed argument for considering both Hill and the IWW for their contributions toward creating an autonomous and uncompromising alternative culture. --Gordon Simmons, Labor Studies Journal Rosemont seems to have hunted down every available detail of Hill's short life and abiding legend. --Los Angeles Times Joe Hill has finally found a chronicler worthy of his revolutionary spirit, sense of humor, and poetic imagination. --Robin D. G. Kelley, author, Freedom Dreams

"""Joe Hill has finally found a chronicler worthy of his revolutionary spirit, sense of humor, and poetic imagination."" --Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams ""Rosemont's treatment of Joe Hill is passionate, polemical, and downright entertaining. What he gives us is an extended and detailed argument for considering both Hill and the IWW for their contributions toward creating an autonomous and uncompromising alternative culture."" --Gordon Simmons, Labor Studies Journal ""Magnificent, practical, irreverent and (as one might say) magisterial, written in a direct, passionate, sometimes funny, deeply searching style."" --Peter Linebaugh, author of Stop, Thief! ""Rosemont seems to have hunted down every available detail of Hill's short life and abiding legend."" --Los Angeles Times ""It has been a long time since so much new material on Joe Hill and the Wobblies has been collected in one volume. All students of the IWW, labor cartoons and songs, radical humor, and the history of blue-collar countercultures in the U.S. will find this book indispensable."" --Salvatore Salerno, editor of The Big Red Songbook"

Author Information

Franklin Rosemont was a poet, an artist, and an activist who was involved in the history of surrealism and the radical labor movement in the United States. He is the author of An Open Entrance to the Shut Palace of Wrong Numbers and several collections of poetry and the editor of several books, including What Is Surrealism? Selected Writings of Andre Breton. He was the cofounder of the Chicago Surrealist Group. David Roediger is a professor of American studies and history at Kansas University. He is the author of How Race Survived U.S. History and The Wages of Whiteness and the coauthor of Our Own Time: A History of American Labor and the Working Day. His articles have appeared in Against the Current, History Workshop Journal, New Left Review, the Progressive, and Radical History Review. He lives in Chicago.

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