No worry about spoilers here. THis book consists of 6 essays on the 1877 Strikes in the US, plus an introduction. I thought the esssys varied in quality & relevance. It took me a while to read the book so I don't remember everything. The first essay, about how the picture papers & illustrators depicted the working class & the strikers was interesting. It talked about the people out & involved in the 1877 actions being not just working class but also middle class. I don't remember the 2nd essay. The one on Chicago had some interesting information about the movement in Chicago. Then there was one about the mid-South (Louisville, Nashville, Memphis) which was mostly about how nothing much happened. The final 2 essays were about California; the one about San Francisco talked about the anti-Chinese riots that took place in 1877, and the one about Southern California talked about how the Hispanic American newspapers put forward that Hispanics were part of the white working force & opposed the Chinese workers. It also made the point that the 1877 strikes weren't a watershed event in Southern California & so talk about 1877 shouldn't just simply say it was a watershed year for the US. This is a vague review because I am tired & I don't remember a lot.