Rating: 
Summary: A broad spectrum of American history, politics and humanity
Review: There is a great deal of American history which turns on the events portrayed in this book: labor, the mines and railroads, the power & beauty of print news, Irish immigration, manipulation of post civil war black military, law and its celebrities, the Pinkertons, and Idaho, complex, beautiful Idaho! It is a big book, and a lot to wade through. But doing so inoculates you with the human beings who made up this real life drama. Every prominent figure gets his or her own mini-biography (whether you want it or not); so the journey stays focused and travels around the country at the same time. Educational, enjoyable and hauntingly real.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad a little long
Review: This book is basically an examination of a trial by Clarence Darrow. In short what has happened is that Frank Steunenberg a former state governor has been killed by a bomb. The authorities had been able to track down the trigger-man quite quickly. What is in issue is the trial of three union leaders the most prominent being Bill Haywood. The allegation was that this was a pay back killing for the former governors support of mine owners who were involved in anti union activity and had been ordered by the unionists. The events occurred in Idaho which at the time was a very sparsely populated state. The state had problems investigating the matter and the mine owners paid for the Pinkerton detective agency to investigate the matter. The union hired Clarence Darrow to appear for the Defence. The book is a very long one some 800 pages and is full of epic stuff. The author goes off and writes long descriptions of characters far from the action to give the reader a feel of America at the time and the sorts of struggles that were going on between Labor and Capital. Some people who have read the book have found this a bit of a slog. I thought that it was reasonable if a little long winded. The meat of the book concerns the trial. However the trial was only one aspect of complex legal maneuvering. All the parties played the game toughly. The defendants were not legally arrested but kidnapped by private detectives. Witnesses were made offers by the prosecution and the Defence was responsible for the spiriting away of at least one witness. It was a case in which by the time of the trial most parties knew what was going to happen. The trigger-man would give evidence and his credibility would be attacked. The removal of other witnesses improved things remarkably for the Defence. This is broadly what happened and in the end a jury rejected the evidence. The book is an interesting portrait of how big capital can play the game tough and how this in turn can bread a culture of violence. An interesting read but not a on the edge of the seats nail gripping read.
Rating: 
Summary: Ponderous - And worth every sidetrack
Review: This is a big book. I hear that if it wasn't for the editors it would be even larger. That much can be seen before you read it. What can not be seen, and what it does better than any non-fiction book I've read in quite a while, is to tell the story of a time. What was the turn of the (last) century really like? Well, as you will find here, there was a lot going on. There's class warfare. There's corruption. There's a tremendous growth, and tremendous change. If you want to know about all of these things, this is the book for you. If you want a quick recap of the trial that forms the "backbone" of the book, this is not the book. You will, from time to time, get frustrated by the side tracks, you will wonder why there is so much here about other things. If you stick with it, you will come away understanding many of the forces that led to the 'Progressive' reforms a couple decades later, and you will meet many very interesting people along the way. Stick with it... You'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: "The Book That Made Me Want to Be a Historian"
Review: Well, maybe not THE book, but when, for my first graduate course in history, I had to pick the work of history that most influenced my professional ambitions I picked Big Trouble, which I read in an undergrad U.S. Industrial History course. Big Trouble is a wonderful book and Lukas an amazing writer. I was interested all the way through the several hundred pages, which was not true for any of the other books I read in Industrial History, or in almost any other class ever. What really struck me about Big Trouble, however, was what my professor passed out on the day we finished reading it: Luakas' obituary. He killed himself a few months before Big Trouble was published because, after winning two Pulitzers and a National Book Award, he felt that he had been a failure as a writer. I am sad that he did not live to write more.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, digressive history of the USA a century ago.
Review: Written just before his death, Big Trouble is probably the best writing J. Anthony Lukas ever accomplished--though he was top-drawer at the NYTimes for many years. This is a sleep-robbing account of the killing of a former governor of Idaho, set against a backdrop of the fiercest labor-corporation strife America has ever known. Lukas digresses to pockets of American history that include characters like Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, Ethel Barrymore, Samuel Gompers and Walter Johnson (yes, to the beginnings of professional baseball). Throughout, the theme of developing class-consciousness is tied to a world of governmental, corporate and union intrigue. The book is painstakingly researched, with a bibliography and notes that could provide history Ph.D. candidates a field-day of possibilities...but this is written by a writing pro who knows what will keep reading pro's awake through the night. I rate it a 9 and not a 10 because that rating is reserved, on my scale, for a verbal Paradisio that few can attain without their personal Virgil.
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