The folks of Clearwater, Idaho, had rarely come face to face with any city folk, so a group of Chicago gangsters driving through town in an old hearse drew a crowd right away. Later, when the gangsters’ hearse pulled up to Abe and Beth’s meatpacking company, the locals just assumed the circus was in town. And although they misjudged the purpose of their guests’ visit, these small-town Idaho natives weren’t far off.

The Clearwater Union War is certain to have readers rolling with laughter as they follow a fascinating and often hilarious tale about unionization and the dilemmas it caused in rural western America. Ron Carter’s delightful cast of characters include twenty-three Chicago mobsters, who work for Big Ed and his mammoth union, and a handful of bright but sometimes backward Idaho locals who take on the Union bosses out of Chicago, and win.