Against all odds, the miners of Bienfait, Saskatchewan attempted, in 1931, to change their miserable situation by organizing a union. Stephen Endicott focuses on the miners' tumultuous thirty-day strike to explore the social consequences of capitalist restructuring during the Great Depression. The miners' bid to gain union recognition with the aid of the Workers' Unity League of Canada failed, and Endicott's in?depth examination of the key factors and players attempts to explain why it did so, and why a similar union drive a decade later eventually succeeded.

Based on a large number...