Large book - very complete history of Joe Hill - the Wobbly (IWW) Poet "Don't mourn me, organize!"

Joe Hill is a shining star of the labor movement. And his light has a tendency to blind his biographers.

I have three accounts of Hill's life and execution. Or, rather, of his trial and execution, because very few details are available about his life. We have his songs, and we have the accounts of his trial; other than that, there is little we can know. So all three books are forced to devote most of their space to his last two years of life.

And only this one does it well.

Hill's innocence is such an article of faith in some circles that no attempt is made to look at the actual evidence. And Hill's trial was such a messed-up affair that it didn't look at the actual evidence either. One of the accounts I have, by Philip S. Foner, doesn't even really care if Hill was innocent or not; all it does is talk about the unfairness of the trial. That the trial didn't prove anything is patent. That does not mean that Hill was innocent -- it means that he should have had a new trial, which is altogether different.

The other account, by William M. Adler, is much more detailed, and it does address the topic of Hill's innocence. It also brings forward much more evidence. But Adler is clearly convinced of Hill's innocence also. So his account is somewhat biased.

The account of Gibbs M. Smith is the only Hill biography I felt I could trust. It doesn't have as much information at its disposal as did Adler. But it tackles the issues head-on. It doesn't always find the answers, but it states the case well. After you've read this, you can read Adler, and maybe some of the other accounts, and form your own conclusion rather than having it fed to you. ( )