Communities of Ludlow
Collaborative Stewardship and the Ludlow Centennial Commemoration Commission
"The Archaeology of Class War has much to recommend it, especially to specialists in Colorado, labor and industrial, ethnic, and gender history."
—Center for Colorado & the West
"The Archaeology of Class War provides an important way of looking at a tragic episode in America's past. The volume provides several excellent examples of the study of material culture and the working class."
—Paul A. Shackel, Plains Anthropologist
"A welcome addition to literature on the Colorado Coalfield War, labor studies, material culture studies, and the field of critical historical archaeology."
—Jeff McGovern, Historical Geography
The Archaeology of the Colorado Coalfield War Project has conducted archaeological investigations at the site of the Ludlow Massacre in Ludlow, Colorado, since 1996. With the help of the United Mine Workers of America and funds from the Colorado State Historical Society and the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities, the scholars involved have integrated archaeological finds with archival evidence to show how the everyday experiences of miners and their families shaped the strike and its outcome.
The Archaeology of Class War weaves together material culture, documents, oral histories, landscapes, and photographs to reveal aspects of the strike and life in early twentieth-century Colorado coalfields unlike any standard documentary history. Excavations at the site of the massacre and the nearby town of Berwind exposed tent platforms, latrines, trash dumps, and the cellars in which families huddled during the attack. Myriad artifacts—from canning jars to a doll's head—reveal the details of daily existence and bring the community to life.
The Archaeology of Class War will be of interest to archaeologists, historians, and general readers interested in mining and labor history.
Contributors: Eleanor Conlin Casella, Sarah Chicone, Bonnie J. Clark, Philip Duke, Amie Gray, Claire Horn, Michael Jacobson, Summer Moore, Dean J. Saitta, Mark Walker, Margaret C. Wood
