Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book about class divisions in the US circa 1900
Review: Lukas skillfully explains how and why class divisions between the mine laborers and the miners exploded into violence. Not only that, if you read this book, you'll learn more about the society, culture, etc. at the turn of the century. In addition to giving a vast overview of the time period, the use of letters, and direct quotes from historical figures, gives this book a personal feel - which can be moving at times.
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Summary: How it actually was and what might have been
Review: Lukas' book is a wonderful, enjoyable read that provides a superlative feel for the realities of the turn of the century American West. Behind the engaging writing however, there is a much greater virtue in the demythologizing of several of the cardboard champions of American history, particularly Clarence Darrow and the organized labor movement. Lukas demonstrates beyond reasonable hope of rebuttal that union leaders such as Big Bill Haywood were all too ready to further their ambitions by murder, perjury and unlawful coercion, and that Darrow was all too willing to serve as a cheerful accessory after the fact by using his tremendous skills of demagogic oratory to misrepresent the true facts and mislead and confuse the fact finders on juries. The crucial message of Big Trouble is that the Haywoods, Darrows and their fellow travelers ought never be lionized, as they usually are, and that their ideological heirs today ought to be viewed with profound suspicion and distrust when they argue otherwise. One of Lukas's multitude of trivia items in his narrative almanac of the Steunenberg murder and subsequent miscarriage of justice (procured in large part by Darrow's witness tampering) is that the presumptive leader of the conspiracy, Haywood, wound up his years in Leninist Russia in the warm red glow which began that country's retreat from modern civilized political and economic practice. Had the Haywoods and Darrows of the early part of this centure been more successful in their hopes and plans here, we might well have wound up in the same sad shape.
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Summary: An epic portrait of America on the brink of class warfare
Review: Lukas' detractors invariably point to his numerous and lengthy digressions. But in this massive but consistently satisfying book, the digressions are at least half the fun. As with his brilliant award winning treatment of the Boston busing crisis COMMON GROUND, Lukas gives us a portrait of an age and an American region, not simply a history. Yes, you will learn more than you ever knew you wanted to know about the Pinkerton's, Clarence Darrow, Idaho mining, and labor activism at the turn of the century, but it is all with a purpose. Lukas has woven a glorious tapestry of Americana, and given us a picture of an age that is rarely revisted, when the possibility of an armed uprising was not merely a phantom in the minds of the far-Right, but a very real and immediate possibility. But always, Lukas sounds a human note, bringing us the private stories of each protagonist in this epic (there's that word again) struggle (and of the lesser characters as well, admittedly). This is essential reading for anyone interested in 20th century American history and the rise of organized labor in this country. The facts of Lukas' tragic death make his immersion in his chosen subject even more poignant and compelling.
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Summary: Hypertext on the printed page
Review: Lukas's Big Trouble is about the assassination of a former Idaho governor at his home, just after the turn of the last century. Lukas's Big Trouble is about just about everything that happened in the U.S. in the 50 years before the "main event."You can read this book on two levels: (1) follow the straight narrative of the murder and the subsequent trial or (2) follow the book from beginning to end as it diverts and digresses filling in an entire back story to the murder. Ranging from a history of the Pinkerton detective agency (and its involvement in the Pennsylvania coal fields in the 19th century), to the Buffalo soldiers, to the Civil War and the Spanish American War, and the history of Colorado mining and labor relations, this is an incredibly detailed and comprehensive work. It bogs down a bit in some places, but it contains a generally lively narrative, and is an engaging read. If somebody would undertake it, this could be converted to a great hypertext work (just click on the reference in the main text and read all about the detail).
Rating:
Summary: A remarkably researched and readable epic!
Review: Mr Lukas provides a veritable kaleidoscope of western Americana at the turn of the last century, while (almost incidentally) covering as a faithful reporter the events surrounding the 1907 Haywood trial. This eminently-readable account places the reader in the front row. As the pages turn, one can feel the beads of sweat roll down the jurors' faces as well as the tension between the combatants. The chief characters, Haywood, Borah, and Darrow, transcend the mists of history and come to life, with all their warts. But the chief value in this work is probably the insights it provokes in a thoughful reader: The role of the contemporary press (and the absence of anything such as "journalistic ethics"); the motivation for, and the financial support of, this costly and nasty bit of criminal prosecution by interested parties (the mine owners association); the spectre of jury-tampering (now, fortunately, almost a lost art). Could there be another Haywood Trial in the era of CNN and Geraldo? How would McParland have fared with Larry King? After all, we don't kidnap or defendants and drag them across state lines anymore. Or do we? It's a subject worth contemplating. "BIG TROUBLE" was well worth the seventy-five or so hours I took to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: A wealth of detail badly in need of editing.
Review: My kingdom for an editor! Lukas obviously came as close as anyone could to understanding everything about his subject, but that did not require him to dump it all on us. I found the book to be badly organized and difficult to follow. I often had to use the index to refresh my recollection about what we had previously been told about a particular character. The book's timeline, particularly the history of labor disputes in the mining industry and the rise of the WFM, was impossible to follow. Some of the digressions carried my interest, others didn't, but they all interfered with the narrative flow of the book. To take the worst example, just when the book was about to hit its climax -- the Haywood trial itself -- we were interrupted by 100 extraneous pages about people some of whose only relation to the story seems to be that they had been to Idaho. At the same time, the trial itself was underreported. Lukas never got around to walking us through the evidence that arguably corroberated Orchard's account and its possible weaknesses, and described little of the battles at trial concerning that evidence. At bottom, a great story and a wealth of information, but the book suffers greatly from the lack of an editor with the ability to see its organizational flaws and the persuade the author to trust his/her judgment.
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Summary: Books "Fault" is the biggest plus
Review: My review will be sparse in contrast to the book itself. Sean Wilentz (Slate) seems to fault the book for its digressions into minutiae and I would normally agree with his assessment. However, this book gives us more than a cursury look into an era which is rarely covered by contemporary authors. The conditions of nearly a century ago in our country and our efforts to deal with "capitalism" and its very real impact on flesh and blood human being bears reflection today. As a conservative, I believe study of this period of our history is essential to dealing with the current state of affairs (Russia comes to mind) which our nation seems to feel compelled to stand as a model.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Trouble: A Book In Search of an Editor
Review: One begins reading "Big Trouble" with great anticipation - a fascinating but little known historical incident, an outstanding writer with a proven track record and a host of respectable reviews. It doesn't disappoint... at least at the start. It takes a little while before one realizes that the book is a lost opportunity. A book that is initially difficult to put down becomes hard to pick up. Athough I stuck with it, I found myself frustrated by the many diversions that distracted from the intriguing story of a notorious murder and a sensational trial. What went wrong? The fault lies with the book's editor. Was there an editor? If so, Where was he or she? The editor did Lukas a great disservice and allowed a potentially great book to meander and ultimately, fail. It's a shame, particularly when one considers that the author's disappointment in his work was one of the factors that led to his suicide. At the same time, one wonders if the inability of Lukas to stay focused was a sign of his depression and if the book's shortcomings reflected a cluttered, distracted state of mind. Sadly, we'll never know.
Rating:
Summary: Big Trouble: A Book In Search of an Editor
Review: One begins reading "Big Trouble" with great anticipation - a fascinating but little known historical incident, an outstanding writer with a proven track record and a host of respectable reviews. It doesn't disappoint... at least at the start. It takes a little while before one realizes that the book is a lost opportunity. A book that is initially difficult to put down becomes hard to pick up. Athough I stuck with it, I found myself frustrated by the many diversions that distracted from the intriguing story of a notorious murder and a sensational trial. What went wrong? The fault lies with the book's editor. Was there an editor? If so, Where was he or she? The editor did Lukas a great disservice and allowed a potentially great book to meander and ultimately, fail. It's a shame, particularly when one considers that the author's disappointment in his work was one of the factors that led to his suicide. At the same time, one wonders if the inability of Lukas to stay focused was a sign of his depression and if the book's shortcomings reflected a cluttered, distracted state of mind. Sadly, we'll never know.
Rating: 
Summary: A sprawling (and deeply flawed) narrative
Review: So much has been written about the narrative structure of Big Trouble that it seems pointless to describe it in much detail here. To put it most simply: Lukas uses a spectacular Idaho murder trial as a vehicle to explore a sometimes dizzying array of social, economic and political issues affecting the United States near the turn of the century. Blessed with an extraordinary cast -- it ranges from the actress Ethel Barrymore to Socialist Eugene Debs -- Lukas ventures off into a number of rewarding sub-narratives, all of them meant to serve as pieces in a vast mosaic. Unfortunately, there are so many prolonged digressions on such a wide variety of subjects that his ostensible focus is at times subsumed by trivia. Case in point: the narrative's real climax, the murder trial of labor leader "Big Bill" Haywood. Instead of bearing down on the courtroom drama, Lukas wanders off again and again; to cite but two examples, he explores in detail the lives of Barrymore (she passed through Boise during the trial and attended a session) and baseball great Walter Johnson (his formidable skills were beginning to bloom for a nearby minor league team). At the beginning of Big Trouble, such diversions can be fascinating and rewarding because Lukas judiciously uses them to contextualize the heart of his narrative. At the book's end, however, they can become frustrating impediments to the narrative's progress. The tragedy of Big Trouble -- and of Lukas, who took his own life in part because of the overwhelming sense of failure he experienced when finishing the book -- is that its author is so captivated by the compelling backgrounds of his relatively minor characters that he often loses track of the events that brought them together. Some editorial pruning might have made Big Trouble a masterpiece. As is, the book, though brilliant, is sometimes too encyclopedic for its own good. Ultimately, it stands as a monument to over-reporting -- a sadly imperfect capstone to Lukas' wonderful career.
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