Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America.

On a snowy night just after Christmas, 1905, in the small town of Caldwell, Idaho, the state's former governor, Frank Steunenberg, was blown "into eternity," by a bomb attached to his garden gate. Starting with this incident, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner J. Anthony Lukas creates a saga that embraces the political and social passions of an entire nation at century's turn in Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America.

The centerpiece of the book is Lukas' account of the trial that followed the murder, which was investigated by Pinkerton detective James McParland. McParland's plan to kidnap the radical union leader "Big Bill" Haywood from Colorado to stand trial in Idaho set the scene for a confrontation between the prosecutor, Senator William Borah, and the defender, Clarence Darrow. Ultimately, the case drew the attention of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and his Supreme Court colleagues, who sanctioned the kidnapping. President Theodore Roosevelt aggressively intervened in the case, sparking massive protests by workers across...