A Young People's History of the United States

Here, Zinn focuses on social critiques and activism, particularly regarding labor and working conditions. Many Americans at the beginning of the 20th century were angry with the American government and critical of the unfettered capitalism that it supported. Public challenges to American systems included “muckraker” journalism that exposed “the bad conduct and unfair practices […] of corporations, government, and society in general” (203) and a rise of socialist candidates within the political system, like Eugene Debs, who emerged as socialism’s “spokesman.”

This rise of socialism was intimately connected to ongoing abuses against the working class—dirty, dangerous factories and crowded, unsanitary housing. Workers recognized the high stakes of their conditions; certain issues were life or death. For example, women who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City—a sweatshop in which mostly immigrant women worked—carried out a large strike in 1909 that “lasted for months, against police, scabs, and arrests” (205). Despite minimal gains, “conditions in the factories did not change much” (205). In 1911, a fire in the factory killed 146 people, some of whom jumped to their deaths from the high floors where the fire was because their employers had illegally locked workroom doors and escape routes.