“This is an excellent work that will become required reading in graduate seminars and is a valuable addition to labor studies in general. Smale provides fresh information on the emergence of the labor movement in Bolivia in the first study of its kind in many years. He has documented his case in innovative ways, using previously unknown sources from Oruro, ... Read morethe region where the Bolivian labor movement began. A must-read for all those interested in labor history and the relationship between the peasantry and the working class in Latin America.” —Erick D. Langer, Director, Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University “In this important and finely wrought social history, Robert Smale explores the potent alchemy of worker activism and Socialist Party politics that periodically turned the tin mines of Oruro and northern Potosí into battlegrounds of popular mobilization and state violence. Shifting the focus away from the recent emphasis on indigenous peasant movements, Smale locates the urban popular classes and their revolutionary unions at center stage of the larger narrative of Bolivia’s turbulent political history leading up to the Chaco War.” —Brooke Larson, Stony Brook University “Smale’s careful and close study of labor activism in the city of Oruro in the first three decades of the twentieth century is to be welcomed. . . . There is a wealth of information here, and it is carefully documented and well written and its narrative of struggles of the Oruro workers is compelling.” —The Americas ”One of the great strengths of this book is Smale’s extensive use of the city of Oruro’s prefectural archives. These materials document the development of the labour movement on the local level, and provide a human element to the story. . . . Smale skillfully weaves together national and even international political and economic history with the local story.” —Bulletin of Latin American Research Show Less