Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887
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Go directly to the collection, Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.
Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887, is an unequalled resource for researching the Haymarket affair. It also supports exercises in four other critical thinking skills. The complexity of the Haymarket affair lends itself to chronological thinking exercises, while its controversial nature can be used to practice historical comprehension, issue-analysis, and decision-making. Finally, the collection contains interesting images that can be analyzed and interpreted to shed further light on the Haymarket affair.
Chronological Thinking
Scene of the Chicago bomb throwing and
vicinity : together with portraits of persons
convicted of complicity therewith, May 4th 1886.
Illinois vs. August Spies et al. trial evidence book.
The Haymarket affair lends itself to exercises in chronological thinking. The Special Presentation, Haymarket Affair Chronology presents the series of events through a timeline while the Dramas of Haymarket provides a detailed narrative. Examine both and consider the following questions:
- Why do you think both renditions of the Haymarket affair begin with the protest for an eight-hour workday on May 1?
- Has the creator of the Haymarket Affair Chronology left anything important out or included anything unnecessary or confusing?
- Examine The Dramas of Haymarket for possible bias.
- What are the benefits of the formats of each of these Special Presentations?
Users of this collection can better understand the Haymarket affair by taking into account the ideas as well as the events that comprised its historical context. Consider the following questions:
- How did the Chicago police view the anarchist movement?
- What factors prompted the police to monitor labor rallies?
- Why did the socialist and anarchist press advise workers to defend themselves against the police?
- What was the mood of Chicago's political and business establishment on the eve of the Haymarket Square rally?
Expand your understanding of the context of the Haymarket affair by researching labor and management relations during the post-Civil War era. Use the following questions to learn more:
- Why was the Knights of Labor organized?
- How effective was this labor organization in garnering support from workers?
- To what extent did European immigrants avowing radical and anarchist views influence the American labor movement in the 1870s and 1880s?
Test your comprehension of the chronology of the Haymarket affair by explaining this historical topic to someone unfamiliar with it.