Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Through the lens of Colorado’s deadliest mining conflicts, this book examines the battle for control over the American workplace. Progressivism frames the struggles between four groups, each looking to alleviate the crisis of industrial violence: miners fighting for control over the mines, corporate owners asserting complete authority over the mines as their private property, government officials attempting to arbitrate these industrial conflicts, and reformers promoting worker protections. The narrative follows two key figures who practiced rival Progressive reforms in resolving these industrial conflicts. On one hand, John D. Rockefeller Jr. used paternalism and philanthropy to promote the scientific management of his workers’ professional and personal lives. On the other hand, Josephine Roche advocated for collective bargaining, and government-backed labor protections. Both of them honed their Progressive ideals in New York City at the turn of the century, and then transported them to Colorado as they took up the management of their businesses. Their reforms played out and eventually failed against the backdrop of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the 1927 Columbine Massacre, where miners and, in the case of Ludlow, their families died in violent confrontations. Both approaches ultimately failed, and their attempts and failures remain relevant today, as contemporary workplaces are still sites where workers and corporations grapple with issues around compensation, benefits, and work hours. Who should determine workplace conditions and compensation? Should workers have meaningful input in decisions affecting their livelihoods? These unresolved tensions between labor, management, and government have fostered a situation where neither employers nor employees feel true ownership over their workplace.</jats:p>