Friday, November 18, 2011

Blood on the Tracks

Blood on the Tracks by Cecilia Holland

This was a Kindle single so I have no idea if it is available in publication anywhere else.

This was a short novella about the Great Uprising that took place in 1877. This was a protest of the railroad workers and the general public against the owners of the railroad and, most specifically, their reduction of wages by 10% as well as increasing the workload of the brakemen by making most freight lines double headers (twice the cars as normal with no extra staff).

There were quite a few parallels with regards to the state of the economy in 1877 and the current economy in 2011. Also, the seeming disregard for the rights and well-being of the workers by the corporate heads seems about the same.

This was a quick and interesting read about a situation in our history that I had never heard of before.

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