"History Repeats Itself ": The Civil War and the Meaning of Labor Conflict in the Late Nineteenth Century

The American Civil War wrought tremendous changes on the young nation. Coinciding with the rapid evolution of industrial capitalism, the conflict not only influenced the course of economic development but also served as a compelling model of cataclysmic battle used by journalists, politicians, labor activists, and academics to come to terms with the tremendous strike waves of the late 19th century. The notion of two great forces arrayed in battle over the very future of the nation was a powerful image, one that the media and others used to "frame" the massive strike events of the 1870's and beyond. Examining popular press materials and employing framing theory as a mode of analysis, this essay explores the influence of the Civil War in shaping conceptualizations of class conflict. In particular, attention will be given to the Great Strike of 1877 and the discursive transformations that accompanied it. If understood in the context of America's traumatic war experience, the peculiar militaristic way that Americans comprehended society—being rent by an "irrepressible" class war—makes much more sense. This argument also offers an alternative interpretative lens for understanding the rhetoric of Progressives who pursued a peaceful settlement for what they termed the "industrial war."