Standing at Armageddon

September 30, 1987
"Fear of working-class violence,'' the author comments in the preface, ``explains much of what has been called progressive reform.'' In this excellent illustrated survey of American labor radicalism and political reaction from the end of Reconstruction to the end of World War I, Painter concentrates largely on the struggle between ``partisans of democracy'' and ``protectors of hierarchy'' during a 42-year period when the country was evolving from an agrarian to an urban industrial society. Her major theme is the public's identification of organized labor with incendiary radicalism. She notes that the years of greatest unrest inspired ever more violent ``red scares'' during which the restoration of law and order meant using whoever could be defined as ``reds'' as the scapegoats. The author is a history professor at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill.