Black Hoboes and Their Songs [Including a CD of 25 original recordings!] Gene Tomko & Paul Garon 2006 296p 5 x 8 In this exciting new book, Paul Garon tells the story of African American migratory workers and the songs they sang: at work, in boxcars and hobo jungles, … Continue reading What’s the use of walking if there’s a freight Train Going Your Way?
Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, Ben Reitman & Other Agitators & Outsiders In 1920s-30s Chicago Frank O. Beck 1956 128p 5 x 8 From the 1910s through the Depression 30s, when Chicago was the undisputed hobo capital of the United States, a small north side neighborhood known as Towertown was … Continue reading Hobohemia
Selected Ravings Of Slim Brundage – Founder & Janitor Of The College Of Complexes Slim Brundage & Franklin Rosemont 2003 140p 5 x 8 A unique combination of tavern, university and nonstop wild party, the College of Complexes (1951-1961) was for many years the city’s outstanding outsider outpost — a … Continue reading From Bughouse Square to the Beat Generation
The Life Of Fred Thompson Fred Thompson & David Roediger 1994 93p 5 x 8 Fred Thompson—1900–1987—socialist, Wobbly, organizer, soapboxer, editor, class-war prisoner, educator, historian, and publisher (it was he who spearheaded the effort to get the Charles H. Kerr Company back on its feet in the 1970s). Here … Continue reading Fellow Worker
A Novel B. Traven 1927 320p 5 x 8 By the 1920s the violence of the Mexican Revolution had largely subsided, although scattered gangs of bandits continued to terrorize the countryside. The newly established post-revolution government relied on the effective but ruthless Federal Police, commonly known as the Federales, … Continue reading The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Adventures and Misadventures of an American Radical William Herrick 2001 280p 6 x 9 Jumping the Line offers a vivid, sobering, first-hand account of Left culture in America’s heady days of the 20s through the 40s. William Herrick grew up in New York City with pictures of Lenin … Continue reading Jumping the Line
Vol. I: The Leninist Counter-Revolution G.P. Maximoff 1940 360p 5 x 8 Originally published in 1940 in two volumes, this is the (partially eyewitness) account of the Leninist terror inflicted upon Russia. Maximoff, a life-long anarchist, fought in the Russian Revolution, organized with the metal-workers, and was imprisoned by Lenin’s secret police … Continue reading The Guillotine at Work
The Life and World of Ben Reitman, Chicago’s Celebrated Social Reformer, Hobo King and Whorehouse Physician Roger A. Burns 2001 368p 6 x 9 Biography of “the hobo doctor” who road the rails and treated the elements of the working class many other physicians refused to, including performing abortions which were illegal … Continue reading The Damndest Radical
B. Traven 1926 207p 5 x 8 The background of The Cotton-Pickers, set in Mexico in the 1920s, is the struggle of the emerging trade unions to end the exploitation of hungry laborers. Gales, a laconic American drifter, turns his hand to anything for a meal and a flea-bitten … Continue reading The Cotton-Pickers
A Graphic Biography: A True History of Violence, Crimefighting, Politics and Power Rick Geary 2008 112p 5 x 8 In the hands of gifted cartoonist Rick Geary, J. Edgar Hoover’s life becomes a timely and pointed guide to eight presidents–from Calvin Coolidge to Richard Nixon–and everything from Prohibition to cold war espionage. … Continue reading J. Edgar Hoover