The Rambling Kid - Mille feuilles

First American Edition, 286 pages

English language

Published 2003 by Charles H Kerr.

ISBN:: 978-0-88286-272-9
OCLC Number:: 55126144

Soapboxer, writer, poet, agitator, and publicist, the British-born Ashleigh was active in the IWW from 1912 until his deportation nine years later. As a first-hand account of the Wobbly way of life in the 1910s, The Rambling Kid has few equals.

Charles Ashleigh's semi-autobiographical novel fills a void in the record of the events that led to the federal government's brutal attempts to suppress the 'One Big Union' during World War I. Ashleigh's characters ride alongside IWW job delegates, bindle-stiffs, and gandy dancers as they crisscross the country hopping freight trains en route to jobs and strikes and everything in between.

An intimate glimpse into pre-World War I workers' culture on the eve of the Russian Revolution. Steve Kellerman's superb introduction provides the critical and biographical context for understanding the importance of Ashleigh's work and the historical forces that produced The Rambling Kid.

Soapboxer, writer, poet, agitator, and publicist, the British-born Ashleigh was active in the IWW from 1912 until his deportation nine years later. As a first-hand account of the Wobbly way of life in the 1910s, The Rambling Kid has few equals.

Charles Ashleigh's semi-autobiographical novel fills a void in the record of the events that led to the federal government's brutal attempts to suppress the 'One Big Union' during World War I. Ashleigh's characters ride alongside IWW job delegates, bindle-stiffs, and gandy dancers as they crisscross the country hopping freight trains en route to jobs and strikes and everything in between.

An intimate glimpse into pre-World War I workers' culture on the eve of the Russian Revolution. Steve Kellerman's superb introduction provides the critical and biographical context for understanding the importance of Ashleigh's work and the historical forces that produced The Rambling Kid.

2 editions

Ji FU reviewed The Rambling Kid by Charles Ashleigh

A fun lefty tale

No rating

I really like The Rambling Kid even if it wasn't what I was expecting. When I heard "A novel about the IWW" I was hoping for a story where we won. Where wobbles successfully seized the means of production whilst bringing about a new world inside the shell of the old, even if in only a small part of the world. Alas what I got was a story that very well could have been a true story. Ashleigh even made frequent references to the Wobblies sometimes being too high on expectations and theory perhaps too pragmatic, for what the working class needed, all while being the best thing they had.

But the book wasn't all gloom and doom. We follow the life of Joe who goes from a boy in London, England, to a farmer in the Dakotas. Straight thru Ellis island to the prairies of the Scandinavian immigrants. …

I really like The Rambling Kid even if it wasn't what I was expecting. When I heard "A novel about the IWW" I was hoping for a story where we won. Where wobbles successfully seized the means of production whilst bringing about a new world inside the shell of the old, even if in only a small part of the world. Alas what I got was a story that very well could have been a true story. Ashleigh even made frequent references to the Wobblies sometimes being too high on expectations and theory perhaps too pragmatic, for what the working class needed, all while being the best thing they had.

But the book wasn't all gloom and doom. We follow the life of Joe who goes from a boy in London, England, to a farmer in the Dakotas. Straight thru Ellis island to the prairies of the Scandinavian immigrants. The farm goes bankrupt and off to the Twin Cities they go. Joe joins the Wobblies for a good time and a good job, and then hops the trains like a hobo. He falls in love, possibly more than once. Charged with a crime he didn't commit, and becomes a spokesman for the movement.

So all-in-all still good fun while also have quite a bit of true working class grit. Recommended to any Fellow Worker, whether or not they've joined the One Big Union.

Ji FU

rated it

13 hours ago

Subjects

Political
Fiction / Alternative History
Alternative History
Unions -- Fiction
Labor Movement -- Fiction