From the Archives: The Mother Jones Monument

It’s Labor Day here in the United States.  One of the things I do to celebrate is to share a post from the past about major players in the early American labor movement.  I think it’s important to remember that the labor movement fought hard for many things we shouldn’t take for granted, like  a…

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Shin-Kickers from History: Mary Heaton Vorse

In a recent blog post, I introduced you in passing to activist and journalist Mary Heaton Vorse. As is so often the case, Vorse is worth a closer look. Born to an upper-middle class family in Amherst, Massachussets in 1874, Vorse was a prolific and high-profile novelist, labor journalist, and activist.* In 1896, after a…

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Road Trip Through History: The Mother Jones Monument

Driving from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks and back over the last mumble years,(1) I have passed the sign for the Mother Jones monument many, many times. It is a plain, almost amateurish, sign, without the official imprimatur(2) of a brown tourist attraction sign(3) or the flash of billboard advertising a show in Branson. Nothing…

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