Paralyzing the Rails: The Brutal Boycott of the Pullman Strike: Unions, Mail, and the Federal Crushing of the American Railway Workforce, 1894

In the late 19th century, George Pullman built a massive luxury train car empire and a utopian "company town" where he controlled his workers' housing, utilities, and wages. When a severe economic depression hit in 1893, Pullman ruthlessly slashed wages by thirty percent but refused to lower the rent in his town, effectively starving his own employees.

When the workers walked out, they sparked the Pullman Strike of 1894—a staggering, nationwide railroad boycott led by Eugene V. Debs. Over 25...