James C. Beeks

author

James C. Beeks

Best known for chronicling a major Chicago labor battle, this early 20th-century writer captured the drama and stakes of a citywide building-trades strike. His surviving work offers a vivid window into labor conflict, organization, and public feeling in that era.

1 Audiobook

30,000 Locked Out: The Great Strike of the Building Trades in Chicago

30,000 Locked Out: The Great Strike of the Building Trades in Chicago

by James C. Beeks

About the author

James C. Beeks is known today for 30,000 Locked Out: The Great Strike of the Building Trades in Chicago, a historical account centered on a major labor struggle in Chicago. The book has remained discoverable through library and public-domain records, which is why his name still surfaces for readers interested in labor history.

Very little biographical information about Beeks appears to be widely available in the sources I could confirm. What can be said with confidence is that his work is closely tied to the story of organized labor and the tensions surrounding the Chicago building trades during that period.

Because the surviving record is so limited, Beeks is best approached through his writing itself: as an author whose documented legacy rests on preserving one striking chapter of American labor history.