Citizens — Meyer Levin

This 1940 novel of the labor movement offers an unflinching portrait of a Chicago steel strike: “A fine American novel -- one of the best I ever read” (Ernest Hemingway).

For Chicago physician Mitch Wilner, July 4, 1937, began as a typical holiday -- a leisurely afternoon at the beach with his wife and young children. But when a peaceful protest erupts in violence, and Mitch sees unarmed steel mill strikers attacked by the local police, he finds himself thrust into the heart of America's labor struggles.

In the days and months that follow, Mitch witnesses the aggressive strike-breaking tactics used by the steel mill companies, the brutality of the authorities, and the blatant corruption of the local government and media. But in the unionists, Mitch discovers a bond that crosses ethnic, class, and racial boundaries, and truly embodies the spirit of the American dream.

Inspired by the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, Citizens looks at some of the darkest days in modern US labor history in a “powerful, photographic novel [that] will catch the imagination of the social minded” (Kirkus Reviews).

“One of the best American writers working in the realistic tradition.” -- Norman Mailer