Big Bill Haywood, leader of the Wobblies, was revered and reviled all across America. His goal was economic justice for all, to be achieved by the power of workers united in "one big union"—the Industrial Workers of the World. He preached violence to combat violence in the battle for a new social order, and it was through this violence that he and his followers ultimately were discredited. But this larger-than-life man and the I.W.W. played a vital role in the stormy early days of the American labor movement.

Born in Utah in 1869, Bill Haywood grew up in an era of unprecedented growth and power for American big business and industry. A born rebel, devoted to personal freedom, young Bill learned early how useless it was for a worker to stand up alone for his rights. Unions were the only answer, but when Haywood saw strikes broken by armed force and prejudiced courts, he decided the entire system had to be changed, and that extra-legal methods were needed.

Thus the I.W.W. was born. In every state, "working stiffs" wore the union button. Factories were dynamited, workers and militia killed in gun duels, the jails filled with union men and Big Bill himself almost convicted of murder in one of the most dramatic trials in U.S. history. Men like Joe Hill became martyrs, women like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn living legends, great strikes were fought and won—until the I.W.W. fell victim to internal dissension and public antagonism during the patriotic hysteria of World War I because of its pacifist position.

Big Bill Haywood died in exile, his dream of one big union shattered. Yet today every working person in America owes a debt to this sometimes unwise, but always dedicated leader.

From the dust jacket