Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary

"Lucy Parsons' life expressed the anger of the unemployed workers, women, and minorities against oppression and is exemplary of radicals' efforts to organize the working class for social change."
--From the preface

Lucy Parsons, who the Chicago police considered "more dangerous than a thousand rioters," was an early American radical who defied all the conventions of her turbulent era as an outspoken woman of color, writer, and labor organizer. Parsons' life as activist spanned the era of the Robber Barons through the Great Depression, during which she actively campaigned and organized for the emancipation of the working class from wage slavery. Parsons courageously led the defense campaign for the "Haymarket martyrs," including her husband Albert Parsons. Ashbaugh's biography takes a giant leap toward reinterpreting the role of women in American history.