Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century by Chad E. Pearson (review)

Pub Date : 2024-04-22 DOI:10.1353/soh.2024.a925478
Dennis Patrick Halpin
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Pearson makes an important contribution to labor history, the history of capitalism, and ultimately the history of the long Reconstruction and Progressive eras. Over six chapters, Pearson brings <strong>[End Page 448]</strong> readers into the clandestine gatherings held by business owners, Law and Order Leagues, cattlemen’s associations, Citizens’ Alliances, and the Ku Klux Klan. These meetings happened throughout the United States, and Pearson hops around locations. In doing so, he spotlights events in smaller, lesser-explored cities, like Sedalia, Missouri, and profiles the actions and thoughts of lesser-known anti-union activists. Pearson’s cast is ostensibly a motley crew. They worked in different industries, at times held differing political views, and lived in different regions of the United States. Yet they were bound by the privileges stemming from their whiteness, class, and commitment to labor repression. The picture that emerges from this patchwork of smaller places and lesser-known figures is nothing short of a concerted campaign to repress efforts at working-class organization by any and all means.</p> <p>For Pearson, the story of capital’s terrorists was not easy to uncover. Historians have long been aware of the limitations of the archives when examining the histories of the marginalized. Pearson discovered that the archives posed similar problems in recovering the thoughts of the elite men at the center of his story. It is not that these men were reticent—quite the contrary. As Pearson points out, these men created public narratives, but they were much more circumspect in these settings, usually folding their anti-union philosophies into a discourse of “upholding ‘law and order’” (p. 20). They left their most incendiary thoughts and ideas for the private planning sessions where they could let down their guard. Their secrecy was mostly effective. However, it was not airtight. A host of actors, including journalists, spies, and defectors, forced these gatherings into the archives when they publicized these secret proceedings.</p> <p>Pearson’s examination of these men and their efforts has led him to a pointed conclusion: these men were terrorists. This categorization is central to Pearson’s argument. Readers’ individual reaction to the author’s deployment of this charged word—Pearson terms it “politically loaded and provocative”—may be a barrier of admission (p. 8). This issue is something that Pearson recognizes and confronts head-on. Pearson writes, “I suspect that most readers will find my choice of this word [<em>terrorism</em>] uncontroversial in some cases, but problematic, over-the-top, and even offensive, in other contexts” (p. 9). While Pearson is confident that using <em>terrorism</em> to describe the actions of the Ku Klux Klan will meet with little resistance, that same label might provoke pushback when applied to a group like “members of western-based stock growers associations, [and] Law and Order League vigilantes” (p. 9). “Yet,” he contends, “these organizations often employed the same types of primitive and ferocious actions used by Klansmen, including kidnappings, drive-out campaigns, and murder” (p. 9). Pearson is convincing. In case after case, he shows that the men he studies deployed violence, kidnapping, and harassment with little consequence or moral hesitation.</p> <p>The word <em>terrorism</em> is important for Pearson in another respect: it binds together the actions of groups and individuals that are often discussed separately. Pearson instead encourages the reader to recognize these actions as part of an often decentralized but still concerted program. In this respect, Pearson offers a corrective in a similar vein as the recent work of Kidada E. Williams. Like the white supremacist terrorists in Williams’s <em>I Saw Death Coming: A History of Survival and Terror in the War against Reconstruction</em> (New York, 2023), <strong>[End Page 449]</strong> Pearson’s subjects did not always centrally plan their actions...</p> </p>","PeriodicalId":0,"journal":{"name":"","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/soh.2024.a925478","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

  • Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century by Chad E. Pearson
  • Dennis Patrick Halpin
Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century. By Chad E. Pearson. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022. Pp. x, 314. Paper, $34.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-7173-4; cloth, $99.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-7172-7.)

In Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century, historian Chad E. Pearson makes an important contribution to labor history, the history of capitalism, and ultimately the history of the long Reconstruction and Progressive eras. Over six chapters, Pearson brings [End Page 448] readers into the clandestine gatherings held by business owners, Law and Order Leagues, cattlemen’s associations, Citizens’ Alliances, and the Ku Klux Klan. These meetings happened throughout the United States, and Pearson hops around locations. In doing so, he spotlights events in smaller, lesser-explored cities, like Sedalia, Missouri, and profiles the actions and thoughts of lesser-known anti-union activists. Pearson’s cast is ostensibly a motley crew. They worked in different industries, at times held differing political views, and lived in different regions of the United States. Yet they were bound by the privileges stemming from their whiteness, class, and commitment to labor repression. The picture that emerges from this patchwork of smaller places and lesser-known figures is nothing short of a concerted campaign to repress efforts at working-class organization by any and all means.

For Pearson, the story of capital’s terrorists was not easy to uncover. Historians have long been aware of the limitations of the archives when examining the histories of the marginalized. Pearson discovered that the archives posed similar problems in recovering the thoughts of the elite men at the center of his story. It is not that these men were reticent—quite the contrary. As Pearson points out, these men created public narratives, but they were much more circumspect in these settings, usually folding their anti-union philosophies into a discourse of “upholding ‘law and order’” (p. 20). They left their most incendiary thoughts and ideas for the private planning sessions where they could let down their guard. Their secrecy was mostly effective. However, it was not airtight. A host of actors, including journalists, spies, and defectors, forced these gatherings into the archives when they publicized these secret proceedings.

Pearson’s examination of these men and their efforts has led him to a pointed conclusion: these men were terrorists. This categorization is central to Pearson’s argument. Readers’ individual reaction to the author’s deployment of this charged word—Pearson terms it “politically loaded and provocative”—may be a barrier of admission (p. 8). This issue is something that Pearson recognizes and confronts head-on. Pearson writes, “I suspect that most readers will find my choice of this word [terrorism] uncontroversial in some cases, but problematic, over-the-top, and even offensive, in other contexts” (p. 9). While Pearson is confident that using terrorism to describe the actions of the Ku Klux Klan will meet with little resistance, that same label might provoke pushback when applied to a group like “members of western-based stock growers associations, [and] Law and Order League vigilantes” (p. 9). “Yet,” he contends, “these organizations often employed the same types of primitive and ferocious actions used by Klansmen, including kidnappings, drive-out campaigns, and murder” (p. 9). Pearson is convincing. In case after case, he shows that the men he studies deployed violence, kidnapping, and harassment with little consequence or moral hesitation.

The word terrorism is important for Pearson in another respect: it binds together the actions of groups and individuals that are often discussed separately. Pearson instead encourages the reader to recognize these actions as part of an often decentralized but still concerted program. In this respect, Pearson offers a corrective in a similar vein as the recent work of Kidada E. Williams. Like the white supremacist terrorists in Williams’s I Saw Death Coming: A History of Survival and Terror in the War against Reconstruction (New York, 2023), [End Page 449] Pearson’s subjects did not always centrally plan their actions...

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资本的恐怖分子:查德-E.-皮尔逊(Chad E. Pearson)所著的《十九世纪漫长岁月中的三K党人、执法者和雇主》(评论
以下是内容的简要摘录,以代替摘要:评论者: 资本的恐怖分子:Chad E. Pearson Dennis Patrick Halpin 著 Capital's Terrorists:十九世纪漫长岁月中的三K党人、律师和雇主。作者:Chad E. Pearson。(教堂山:北卡罗来纳大学出版社,2022 年。x, 314页。纸质版,34.95 美元,ISBN 978-1-4696-7173-4;布质版,99.00 美元,ISBN 978-1-4696-7172-7)。In Capital's Terrorists:历史学家 Chad E. Pearson 在《资本的恐怖分子:漫长十九世纪的三K党人、执法者和雇主》一书中,对劳工史、资本主义史以及最终对漫长的重建和进步时代的历史做出了重要贡献。皮尔逊用六章的篇幅,将读者带 [完 第 448 页] 入由企业主、法律与秩序联盟、养牛人协会、公民联盟和三K党举行的秘密集会。这些会议在全美各地举行,皮尔逊在各个地点跳来跳去。在此过程中,他着重描写了密苏里州塞达利亚等较小、鲜为人知的城市中发生的事件,并介绍了鲜为人知的反工会活动家的行动和思想。从表面上看,皮尔森的演员阵容杂乱无章。他们从事不同的行业,有时持有不同的政治观点,生活在美国不同的地区。然而,他们却被白人、阶级和对劳工压迫的承诺所带来的特权所束缚。从这些小地方和鲜为人知的人物的拼凑中,我们看到的是一场不择手段镇压工人阶级组织的一致运动。对皮尔逊来说,揭开资本恐怖分子的故事并非易事。历史学家早就意识到档案在研究边缘化群体历史时的局限性。皮尔逊发现,在恢复他故事中心的精英人物的思想时,档案也带来了类似的问题。这并不是说这些人沉默寡言--恰恰相反。正如皮尔逊所指出的,这些人创造了公共叙事,但他们在这些场合要谨慎得多,通常将他们的反工会理念融入 "维护'法律和秩序'"的话语中(第 20 页)。他们把最具煽动性的想法和主张留给了私下的计划会议,在那里他们可以放松警惕。他们的保密措施大多是有效的。然而,这并非密不透风。包括记者、间谍和叛逃者在内的众多参与者在公开这些秘密会议时,迫使这些会议被存档。皮尔逊通过对这些人及其努力的研究得出了一个尖锐的结论:这些人是恐怖分子。这一分类是皮尔逊论证的核心。读者对作者使用这个带有强烈政治色彩的词的个人反应--皮尔逊称其为 "带有政治色彩和挑衅性"--可能会成为阅读的障碍(第 8 页)。皮尔逊认识到了这个问题,并直面它。皮尔逊写道:"我猜想,大多数读者会发现,我选择的这个词(恐怖主义)在某些情况下没有争议,但在其他情况下却有问题、过分,甚至令人反感"(第 9 页)。皮尔逊相信,用恐怖主义来形容三K党的行为不会遇到什么阻力,但如果用同样的标签来形容 "以西部为基地的畜牧业者协会成员,[以及]法律与秩序联盟的义务警员"(第 9 页)这样的群体,则可能会引起反感。"然而,"他争辩道,"这些组织经常采用与三K党人相同的原始和凶残的行动,包括绑架、驱赶运动和谋杀"(第 9 页)。皮尔逊的观点令人信服。他在一个又一个案例中表明,他所研究的这些人在使用暴力、绑架和骚扰时几乎不计后果,在道德上也毫不犹豫。恐怖主义一词对皮尔逊的重要性还体现在另一个方面:它将经常被分开讨论的团体和个人的行为联系在一起。相反,皮尔逊鼓励读者将这些行动视为往往是分散的、但仍是协调一致的计划的一部分。在这方面,皮尔逊提供了与基达达-E-威廉姆斯(Kidada E. Williams)近期著作类似的纠正方法。就像威廉姆斯的《我预见死亡即将来临》(I Saw Death Coming:A History of Survival and Terror in the War against Reconstruction》(纽约,2023 年)中的白人至上主义恐怖分子一样,[第 449 页末] 皮尔逊的研究对象并不总是集中计划他们的行动......
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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