On July 6, 1892, three hundred armed Pinkerton agents arrived in Homestead, Pennsylvania to retake the Carnegie Steelworks from the company's striking workers. As the agents tried to leave their boats, shots rang out and a violent skirmish began. The confrontation at Homestead was a turning point in the history of American unionism, beginning a rapid process of decline for America's steel unions that lasted until the Great Depression.

Examining the strike's origins, events, and legacy, The Homestead Strike illuminates the tense relationship between labor, capital, and...

On July 6, 1892, three hundred armed Pinkerton detectives arrived in Homestead, Pennsylvania to retake the Carnegie Steelworks from the company's striking workers. In response to worsening labor conditions, decreasing industrial wage labor, and the close relationship between capital and the state, the workers had locked out plant officials and halted production. As the detectives approached, shots rang out and a violent skirmish began. In this infamous moment in labor history, over two dozen people were killed. Homestead was a turning point in the history of American unionism-- it weakened...