Bisbee, Arizona, queen of the western copper camps, 1917. The protagonists in a bitter strike: the Wobblies (the IWW), the toughest union in the history of the West; and Harry Wheeler, the last of the two-gun sheriffs. In this class-war western, they face each other down in the streets of Bisbee, pitting a general strike against the largest posse ever assembled. Based on a true story, Bisbee '17 vividly re-creates a West of miners and copper magnates, bindlestiffs and scissorbills, army officers, private detectives, and determined revolutionaries. Against this backdrop runs the story of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, strike organizer from the East, caught between the worlds of her ex-husband—the Bisbee strike leader—and her new lover, an Italian anarchist from New York. As the tumultuous weeks of the strike unfold, she struggles to sort out what she really feels about both of them, and about the West itself.

Bisbee, Arizona, queen of the western copper camps, 1917. The protagonists in a bitter strike: the Wobblies (the IWW), the toughest union in the history of the West; and Harry Wheeler, the last of the two-gun sheriffs. In this class-war western, they face each other down in the streets of Bisbee, pitting a general strike against the largest posse ever assembled. Based on a true story, Bisbee '17 vividly re-creates a West of miners and copper magnates, bindlestiffs and scissorbills, army officers, private detectives, and determined revolutionaries. Against this backdrop runs the story of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, strike organizer from the East, caught between the worlds of her ex-husbandÑthe Bisbee strike leaderÑand her new lover, an Italian anarchist from New York. As the tumultuous weeks of the strike unfold, she struggles to sort out what she really feels about both of them, and about the West itself.

Reminiscences of a teacher and poet about his years in Southern Arizona, interwoven with descriptions of the area, its history, its people, and its climate.

On July 12, 1917, in the mining town of Bisbee Arizona, twelve hundred striking miners and their supporters were rounded up by forces organized by the town sheriff and the mining companies, marched through the town, parked in the town’s baseball field, and then put in boxcars and shipped into the New Mexican desert. The deportees were largely members or supporters of the radical IWW labor union and mostly foreign-born. The roundup and deportation was part of a xenophobic and anti-radical campaign being carried out by bosses and the government throughout the country in the early days of US participation in World War I. The mine owners then took control of the town and patrols prevented any union miners from even entering it. This little-known story is a shocking and fascinating one on its own, but the sentiments exploited and exposed in Bisbee in 1917 speak to America today.

Visually, the Bisbee of today remains a community frozen in time, with Main Street retaining its character from 1910. The discovery of copper deposits in the Mule Mountains brought forth a wealth that enabled a substantial community. Profitable mining ventures and a need for labor drew thousands of miners from around the world to work in Bisbee. These individuals added a distinct flavor to the area. Like countless other Western mining camps, Bisbee evolved from a rough frontier community surviving disastrous fires and floods into a town with a substantial population and solid foundation. Bisbee's seemingly inexhaustible mineral wealth resulted in the community becoming a center of economic and political power in an emerging territory on its way to statehood. It was Arizona's greatest copper camp.

“Are you an American, or are you not?” This is the question at the heart of Katherine Benton-Cohen’s provocative history, which ties a seemingly remote corner of the country to one of America’s central concerns: the historical creation of racial boundaries.

Investigating a long-unsolved murder when a nun witness uncovers blocked memories, Special Homicide Investigation Team member J. P. Beaumont infiltrates a band of powerful conspirators who will go to any lengths to hide the truth, in a case that is complicated when his former partner is charged with murder. 200,000 first printing.