The Guns of Lattimer, by Michael Novak (Basic Books, 276 pp., $10.95). Bruce Cat ton observed that there is a mean streak running just under the surface of the American character. Michael Novak is no historian, but his impressive narration of the Lattimer Massacre bears eloquent wit ness to Catton’s assertion. For, on September 10, 1897, in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania, a procession of workers peacefully marching to express their un willingness to accept the company’s terms were gunned down for no other apparent reason than that they had annoyed the authorities. That the striking miners were Poles, Slovaks, and Hungarians is a partial explanation. The spectacle of these foreigners claiming civil rights and clutching an American flag was evidently too much for the sheriffs and their deputies to bear. When the smoke cleared, 19 of the marchers lay dead; 36 were seriously wounded.
Never mind that they were unarmed and that most of them were wounded in the back as they ran for cover under the fusillade, which lasted several minutes. The lawmen were certain they were on the side of the angels. So were the authorities who whitewashed the killings: in the subsequent prosecution the lawmen were quickly and completely exonerated, and the incident was virtually forgotten. Novak, the preeminent spokesman for white ethnics, seems to enjoy an occasional dig at WASP America. Nonetheless; in this case, he has written a compelling account which forces a re-examination of this shameful event and the pitiful rationalizations which allowed it to recede from our national consciousness. ALAN L. MILLER
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