"Author David Bates examines the CFL's tenure with scholarly precision, offering a complex, nuanced portrayal of race relations in Chicago a century ago."—James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
“The Ordeal of the Jungle is a timely contribution to the ongoing conversation between the past and the present not only in the fields of labor and African American history but also in movements for the advancement of working people and people of color.”—Peter Rachleff, author of Black Labor in Richmond, 1865–1890
“In this absorbing study, David Bates charts the spectacular rise and equally dramatic fall of the Chicago Federation of Labor’s World War I–era campaign to organize the city’s stockyards across lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and skill.”—Paul Michel Taillon, author of Good, Reliable, White Men: Railroad Brotherhoods, 1877–1917
“The Ordeal of the Jungle deftly blends perspectives of union leaders, rank-and-file workers, strikebreakers, and employers to show how aspects of class and race determined the fate of ambitious organizing drives in Chicago’s stockyards and steel mills. Bates’s methodology and nuanced interpretation exemplify the promise of a new generation of labor historians.”—Michael K. Rosenow, author of Death and Dying in the Working Class, 1865–1920
“Bates offers a vivid account of the Chicago labor movement’s failed attempts to promote a progressive brand of interracial unionism early in the twentieth century. Through a masterful synthesis of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ labor histories, Bates illuminates how employer predation, union miscues, and rank-and-file conflict worked together to undercut solidarity and with it hopes of racial change and economic justice. A vital retelling with important lessons for both historians and labor organizers.”—Kerry Pimblott, author of Faith in Black Power: Race, Religion, and Resistance in Cairo, Illinois— -