Bisbee '17

by Robert Houston

Book Overview

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,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816519390
• ISBN13: 9780816519392
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A fine novel about a forgotten time

Houston exaggerates for effect--not all of the historical characters that he uses were actually at Bisbee. But how could anyone resist using the bigger-than-life leaders of the IWW?

City of God versus City of Man

Houston's novel re-opens a little acknowledged but troubling aspect of World War I on the American home front; the deporation of copper miners from Bisbee, Arizona in July 1917. It was a battle as titanic as any fought by the armies on the Western Front. Houston knows the streets, hills, and canyons of Bisbee. His original writing style transports the reader back to those volcanic days in the blast furnace heat of southern Arizona where the Wobblies of the International Workers of the World (IWW) clashed with the mine owners who in turn were backed by the county sherrif, cowboys, and the Eastern Establishment. Copper was essential to the war effort. The IWW hoped that shutting down the mines would cause a crisis in captialism, halt the war, and spark a revolution; it was all about class warfare. The mine owners feared the end of civilization or as one protagonist in the book puts it, "the end of the City of God." The reader witnesses the build-up and explosion through the eyes of characters whose personal lives and fortunes are hinged upon the outcome of the battle. For a historical perspective, the novel lays bare the insecurities and predjucies of American society during the WWI era as viewed through the prism of the West. This novel is a keeper. After reading it, a trip to historic Bisbee, Arizona is in order.

This book changed my life!!!!!!!

Original! Original! I read the hole book in one day and it never got boring once. This novel of ideas and emotions deeply touched me, and its in your face attitude about a minors strike in Arizona made it the most exciting book in the Homer library...If you read just one book this is it. Thank God for that "I can read" sereis with Mrs. Johannosson