ABSTRACT
The Knights of Labor remain very largely a mystery for American historians. A movement which shot across the horizon like a meteor and fell quickly into insignificance had attracted more than a half-million workers, appealed to working people across the divisions of sex, race, and ethnicity, legitimated opposition to the great industrialists, and encouraged the formation of numerous cooperatives to replace the monopolies. Seemingly out of nowhere, labor had summoned a democratic revolution — and failed.
