During the Industrial Era, American workers went on strike to demand higher wages and better working conditions. In most cases, owners and workers described the root causes of the strikes very differently. In this lesson, students use the historical thinking skills of corroboration, sourcing, and close reading to evaluate the reliability of two different accounts of one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history, the Homestead strike.
Image: Drawing of the Homestead Steel Strike by Charles Mente, 1892. From the Library of Congress.