In the depths of a depression in 1894, a highly successful Gilded Age businessman named Jacob Coxey led a group of jobless men on a march from his hometown of Massillon, Ohio, to the steps of the nation's Capitol. Though a financial panic and the resulting widespread business failures caused millions of Americans to be without work at the time, the word unemployment was rarely used and generally misunderstood.

In an era that worshipped the self-reliant individual who triumphed in a laissez-faire market, the out-of-work "tramp" was disparaged as weak or flawed, and undeserving of assistance. Private charities were unable to meet the needs of the jobless, and only a few communities experimented with public works programs. Despite these limitations, Coxey conceived a plan to put millions back to work building a nationwide system of roads and drew attention to his idea with the march to Washington. In Coxey's Crusade for Jobs, Jerry Prout recounts Coxey's story and adds depth and context by focusing on the reporters who were embedded in the march. Their fascinating depictions of life on the road occupied the headlines and front pages of America's newspapers for more than a month, turning the spectacle into a serialized drama. These accounts humanized the idea of unemployment and helped Americans realize that in a new industrial economy, unemployment was not going away and the unemployed deserved attention. This unique study will appeal to scholars and students interested in the Gilded Age and US and labor history.

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Prout provides an important work in the historiography of Coxey's Army, the history of unemployment, and the broader history of the Gilded Age. Prout uses his history of Coxey's Army to illuminate multiple strains of Populism in the 1890s. This important contribution challenges historians to think about the ways in which Populism had multiple potentials, as well as how it survived into the New Deal era and shaped thinking of future government officials and reformers. Well researched and well written, this work is highly recommended for those interested in Coxey's Army, the history of unemployment, and the longer legacies of American protests.

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Coxey's Crusade for Jobs helps bridge the historical eras of narrative-based journalism, expounded by historian Hazel Dicken-Garcia, and the sensationalism and sometimes fact-stretching yellow journalism that followed. It is highly recommended for journalism historians as well as casual readers.

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Prout has produced a highly informative and entirely satisfying study of the contribution of Coxey's 'Industrial Army' to the history of American protest.