Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas

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Checkman

Getting older and balder
May 9, 2007
902
1,989
Idaho
On December 29, 1905 the former governor of Idaho was killed by a bomb that exploded when he opened the gate to his yard of his Caldwell home. The man who did it was quickly identifed and arrested, but that was just the beginning. What ensued was a "trial of the century" that shows how divided the United States was (the more things change.....) and the state of what could be described as open warfare between labor unions and business and the goverment which sided with the business owners. Mr. Lukas's last work (he committed suicide the same day that he submitted his draft of "Big Trouble" to his editor in New York City in 1997) is a massive work that covers not only the actual case, but what was going on in the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century and how the case reflected the state of affairs in the young republic..

I'm a police officer with the City of Caldwell, Idaho and I have lived in the city for fifteen years.. When we first moved to the city we lived one block north from where the old Steuenberg residence once sat. The very spot where he was killed by the bomb. So the book is very interesting to me. Amazingly there are many who have lived here their whole lives that know nothing about Steuenberg's life or death. But I'm getting off track.
It is a huge book and it's crammed with information. It took me almost three months to get through it. Not surprisingly the chapters dealing with the actual investigation, the individuals directly involved and the state of criminal justice in the United States in 1905 were the ones that held my interest.I read through those chapters almost with pausing. And that's saying something because most of the chapters average forty to fifty pages. This is not a beach book.
I found the book to be fascinating. The historical details are necessary. The book gives you an in-depth look at a specific time in the country's history. The extensive backgrounds that Lukas provides for the many characters are also essential. For not only do they help the reader to understand the involved people, but the details also help to explain why the nation was like it was in 1906. Different but similar to the United States in 2015.
Lukas did an excellent job showing this time and the many tensions that existed. And ,whether he meant to or not, Lukas also shows that we aren't so far removed from our ancestors. They too were convinced that their time was the worst and that the world was going to hell in a hand-basket. They knew it and nothing anyone said would change their minds. Somehow I find that refreshing.
If nothing else this book should dispel the myth that living in the early 1900's were simpler than contemporary times. Nonsense. The early 1900's were were just as stressful for those living then as 2015 can be for us. The book Humanizes what seems to be a rather distant era. It adds color to those great old black and white photos.