The American Way

The American Way is the second in a four novel series entitled Building of Empire, Crime and Politics; the Cornerstone of America by author Paddy Kelly. The American Way relates the events leading up to and through the Great Woolen Strike of 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts when approximately 40,000 immigrants from nearly every country in Europe, sharing 30 religions and 127 ethnic back grounds organized a seven-week strike against the richest man in the world. This despite the fact that only ten percent of them spoke English. Released in 2011 the title of this historical fiction is originally taken from the opening lines of the 1950s Superman television program Adventures of Superman (1952–1958) ". . . truth, justice and the American way!" However the catch phrase is meant as an entendre in that the American Way, usually perceived as the right and good way, is also in reality a two edged sword of unprecedented levels of corruption found at all levels of industry and government at the time the story is set. Plot The American Way chronicles the story of one of the largest industrial actions of the early 20th Century utilizing the Triangle Factory Fire tragedy, as an inciting incident. The fire, the worst workplace disaster in the history of New York City until September 11. As the fire rages and workers are dying by the scores three members of the labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World, or I.W.W., Joe Ettor, Arturo Giovannitti and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn witness the aftermath and vow to devote their efforts to the unskilled foreign labor being widely exploited throughout the country. At about the same time, with no knowledge of the growing instability of the U.S. labor situation, Michael Casaburi, a former Sicilian policeman who has lost his wife in a natural catastrophe, contemplates travel to the U.S. to seek work and a new life. Upon seeing a propaganda poster distributed by The American Woolen Company and boasting the fantastic life style available to him by working for the A.W.C., Michael decides to spend the last remnants of his savings in the trans-Atlantic voyage to New York to rebuild his life. Through a distant acquaintance of the family, after reaching Lawrence, Massachusetts, Michael secures a job and sends to Sicily for his sixteen-year-old daughter, Anna.