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Comment by mattalbie | Hacker News Reader

It’s a very minor point but this article makes it sound like the generic term for a union buster is Pinkerton agent. Pinkerton is a private company who does security work these days, but has a long history of doing exactly this. Fascinating Wikipedia read if you’re curious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

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Another echo from those old days: this news about Amazon was broken by a writer named Lauren Gurley.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a famous union organizer who fought the Pinkertons more than a hundred years ago.

Coincidentally, the new novel The Cold Millions by Jess Walter portrays Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Pinkertons in Spokane in 1909.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gurley_Flynn

(A quick search shows Lauren Gurley is a prolific writer on labor issues but doesn't mention any connection to the earlier Gurley - the names might be just a coincidence)

Are you reading the book? Do you like it?

Yes, I am about midway through right now and I do like it.

Imagine my reaction this morning when I saw that the top story on HN was about Pinkerton union busting - reported by a writer named Gurley!

Indeed, everything old is new again. You know the saying, right? History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme. This is often attributed to Mark Twain, but there's no real evidence he actually said it.

In this case, I think quoting the introduction to the The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Marx is more apt: Hegel says somewhere that great historic facts and personages recur twice. He forgot to add: "Once as tragedy, and again as farce."

Given how we seem to be unwilling to learn from history, I prefer Julian Barnes' take from "A History of the World in 10½ Chapters"

> History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.

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