Description
The stories of the hard-rock miners’ shooting wars, young Elizabeth Gurly Flynn (the “Rebel Girl” of contemporary sheet music), the first sit-down strikes and Free Speech fights, Emma Goldman and the struggle for birth control access, the Pageant for Paterson orchestrated in Madison Square Garden, bohemian radicals John Reed and Louise Bryant, field-hand revolts and lumber workers’ strikes, wartime witch hunts, government prosecutions and mob lynching, Mexican-American uprisings in Baja and Mexican peasant revolts led by Wobblies, hilarious and sentimental songs created and later revived all are here, and much more. The IWW is much written-about yet somehow elusive to scholars because of its mixed cultural and social character, The Wobblies presents the IWW whole, scripted and drawn by old-time and younger Wobbly artists among others including Carlos Cortez (former editor of the Industrial Worker), Harvey Pekar (author of American Splendor), Peter Kuper (current artist of Mad’s Spy vs Spy), Sue Coe, Seth Tobocman, Chris Cardinale, Ryan Inzana, Spain Rodriques, Trina Robbins, Sharon Rudahl and the circle of artists for World War III Illustrated.
Review
“Tell the bosses to go to hell and buy an extra copy of this wonderful history. Give it to an exploited friend or just leave it in a public place. On the centenary of the IWW, we should be replanting the seeds of rebellion.” — Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz and Planet of Slums. “”The Wobblies made a unique and remarkable contribution to American culture and the everlasting struggles for freedom and justice, with effects that reach very far, and should in the future as well. The excitement and inspiration of their creative and courageous work is brilliantly captured in this wonderful graphic history.” — Noam Chomsky, author of Hegemony or Survival. “America, contrary to what you might have been led to believe, has a deep indigenous radical tradition. Wobblies! excavates an essential part of American history that has been conveniently overlooked in recent years, and does so with style, great graphics, and no punches pulled.” — Luc Sante, author of Low Life and Evidence. “”The Wobblies have never stood so tall.”” – Bill Grifith creator of Zippy the Pinhead. “”Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World is more than a superb-looking coffee table book; it is an introduction to a critically important chapter in American history, and a graphic guide to grassroots political organizing.”” – Kent Worcester, coeditor of Arguing Comics. “”Carefully reasearched, interesting, informative and accessible, this book could not be more timely.”” Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski novels
About the Author
Paul Bhule is Senior Lecturer in History and American Civilsation. He founded the wobblyesque New Left journal Radical America, for the Students for a Democratic Society, in 1967. He is the author of the authorized biography of C.L.R. James and coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left. Nicole Schulman is an artist on the editorial board of World War 3 Illustrated. Her work has been exhibited and published across the United States as well as in Europe and South Korea, and is in the permanent collection of the library of Congress. She was born and raised in New York City, and continues to live there.
