Buy new:
$36.95
FREE delivery Saturday, May 11
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$36.95
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Saturday, May 11
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 15 hrs 57 mins
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
$$36.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$36.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.47
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Ships direct from Amazon! Ships direct from Amazon! See less
FREE delivery Saturday, May 11 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 15 hrs 57 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$36.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$36.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Dean A. Strang
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW Hardcover – June 18, 2019

by Dean Strang (Author), Nancy Gertner (Foreword)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$36.95","priceAmount":36.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"36","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"gM%2FSLgHIEWtVNY%2BU%2BoXozVvqjg32j6Z5ZXv51Rmy2x0RMFDjk13o0y3vVafqBCfaaoH94zUN%2B4vIkTJDia6Y%2Bmfx0%2B2mmS49fTuUnJcqjQ42yR9z6QLgJ6eASd7k7cEjhl7d8FfFrlRUcIY%2FO3%2FnOA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.47","priceAmount":9.47,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"47","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"gM%2FSLgHIEWtVNY%2BU%2BoXozVvqjg32j6Z5TY260ktCRvFNj5yJCPdvX0rP0JA8MVUZL1FeHge2iXsOliFpp2WWOOFhXQnY2ougwZsYyEwkNEwaMyHLaSA2M3HlcPH6cgpEt3X8MaHNAzv4x%2BGUMs%2Fp8w1hzR4d%2Bd0BK1vAI77Lg2T1BtMz5SdvnQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Before World War I, the government reaction to labor dissent had been local, ad hoc, and quasi-military. Sheriffs, mayors, or governors would deputize strikebreakers or call out the state militia, usually at the bidding of employers. When the United States entered the conflict in 1917, government and industry feared that strikes would endanger war production; a more coordinated, national strategy would be necessary. To prevent stoppages, the Department of Justice embarked on a sweeping new effort—replacing gunmen with lawyers. The department systematically targeted the nation’s most radical and innovative union, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, resulting in the largest mass trial in U.S. history.
In the first legal history of this federal trial, Dean Strang shows how the case laid the groundwork for a fundamentally different strategy to stifle radical threats, and had a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. As the trial unfolded, it became an exercise of raw force, raising serious questions about its legitimacy and revealing the fragility of a criminal justice system under great external pressure.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    344 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Wisconsin Press
  4. Publication date
    June 18, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0299323307
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0299323301
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW
$36.95
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror
$21.95
Get it as soon as Saturday, May 11
Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Dean Strang tells a great story of America’s struggle with fear and injustice a century ago while asking us to consider, ‘What is the story of ourselves that we write today?’ American workers still fight what the Wobblies fought in 1918, as the Justice Department during WWI overreached in ways similar to our current ‘war on terror.’ Dean is a great attorney and a gifted writer, borrowing lessons from the past to help guide our future.”—Alec Baldwin

“Strang humanizes this shameful chapter in our nation’s history. With empathy and verve, he tells the story of abuse of executive power, a partial and wacky federal judge (and autocratic first baseball commissioner), and many ruined lives of working men and women.”—Brad Snyder, author of The House of Truth: A Washington Political Salon and the Foundations of American Liberalism

About the Author

Dean A. Strang a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a criminal defense lawyer. He also is the author of Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Wisconsin Press; 1st edition (June 18, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 344 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0299323307
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0299323301
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.39 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Dean A. Strang

Dean A. Strang

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Dean Strang is a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a criminal defense lawyer, author, and public speaker. The United States' court system during the Progressive Era, including World War I, and its treatment of outsiders, newcomers, and people at societal margins are his particular interest. In addition to his two books of legal history, he has written several law review articles.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
9 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

ERIC OKEEFE
5.0 out of 5 stars DOJ/FBI as political weapons
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
It didn't start with J.Edgar Hoover. Dean Strang writes of efforts during and after World War One to destroy an anti-war labor union by abusing the Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice. J.Edgar Hoover later had the word "Federal" added to "Bureau of Investigation." Strang is an engaging writer with colorful details about victims and their oppressors. This history is vital background for understanding today's 37,000 employee FBI and its overseers at the Department of Justice.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Derek Aktion
5.0 out of 5 stars When free speech, strikes, & anti-war thought were illegal
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020
Verified Purchase
In 1917 the Espionage Act was passed and used by the Justice Department to cripple the union movement, socialists, and opposition to the Great War. Dean Strang's well researched and clearly written legal analysis of the mass trial of IWW union leaders and members brings light to the dark dealings of the Federal government in squashing dissent. This story echoes strongly a century later.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Seth Santini
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
Very insightful and well-written book discussing an important episode in the history of the labor movement and the Department of Justice.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Shelly
5.0 out of 5 stars An Insightful Look into the DOJ's Use and Misuse of Power
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2020
This book is both engaging and enormously important in assessing the legitimacy and proper role of the DOJ and the FBI. It's the first complete historic account of the DOJ's use of legal power to quell union activists and labor dissenters in 1917, resulting in the largest mass trial in U.S. history. It's well-written, thoroughly researched, and insightful, and it's also disturbingly relevant in current times.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Earl Swift
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, clear-eyed, and revelatory
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2021
As he did in WORSE THAN THE DEVIL, Dean Strang here melds vivid storytelling, exhaustive research, and a trial lawyer's assessment of the evidence to produce a new and nuanced evaluation of a shameful episode in U.S. history--the federal government's persecution of the "Wobblies." Now a century passed, the affair is one that some Americans might recall only vaguely, and most not at all; in reopening the case, Mr. Strang introduces new generations to a true tale of governmental abuse that reads like nightmarish fiction.
So it does in his hands, anyway, which is a tribute to his skills as a narrator. Mr. Strang unspools this complex, long-running legal drama so that the reader grasps what happened, why it happened, and what was at stake--and how safeguarding justice requires constant vigilance, now as much as ever. An important story, beautifully told.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report