Description
Book SynopsisTwenty Irish immigrants, suspected of belonging to a secret terrorist organization called the Molly Maguires, were executed in Pennsylvania in the 1870s for the murder of sixteen men. Ever since, there has been enormous disagreement over who the Molly Maguires were, what they did, and why they did it, as virtually everything we now know about the Molly Maguires is based on the hostile descriptions of their contemporaries.Arguing that such sources are inadequate to serve as the basis for a factual narrative, Kevin Kenny examines the ideology behind contemporary evidence to explain how and why a particular meaning came to be associated with the Molly Maguires in Ireland and Pennsylvania. At the same time, this work examines new archival evidence from Ireland that establishes that the American Molly Maguires were a rare transatlantic strand of the violent protest endemic in the Irish countryside.Combining social and cultural history, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires offers a new explana
Table of ContentsAbbreviations Used in Footnotes Preface to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition Introduction Ch. 1 Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, and Molly Maguires Ch. 2 The World of Antracite Ch. 3 Enter the Molly Maguires Ch. 4 The Rise of a Labor Movement Ch. 5 The Reading Railroad Takes Control Ch. 6 The Return of the Molly Maguires Ch. 7 Rough Justice Ch. 8 The Molly Maguires on Trial Ch. 9 Black Thursday Epilogue Conclusion Appendices Bibliography Index
