In the season finale of Executive Dysfunction, Amanda Nelson tells the story of the 1886 Haymarket Affair, when a massive labor movement in Chicago collided with police violence, a mysterious bombing, and a trial that put anarchism itself on the stand. Eight men were convicted despite no proof that any of them threw the bomb, and four were ultimately executed.
It's a story of class warfare, immigrant workers, corporate power, and the bloody struggle behind workplace rights Americans now take for granted.