Nigel Anthony Sellars

The Earth has endured the Zaibatsu Wars, where multinational corporations and their private militaries battled each other for market access and territory. Humanity has also discovered mysterious, ancient star-gates built by aliens called the Gonaymne, the "Nameless Ones," who once ruled the galaxy but then inexplicably vanished. The star-gates allow humanity to colonize the stars, creating hundreds of differing human societies based on economic, social, racial, ethnic, and religious identities. But it also brings humans into conflict with bird-like aliens, the Iimarae. Diplomat Thom DuBois of Earth's Planetary League heads to the planet Askander and hopes to forge common cause against the Iimarae. Settled by free market extremists hoping to create a truly laissez-faire society, Askander has instead devolved into a neo-feudal society of family-owned corporate city-states bound by a religion that views the "invisible hand" of the market as God. The Askanderian families constantly intrigue against each other, and one noble, Don Ernesto abu Brion, has allied with the Iimarae, who have an ancient Gonaymne weapon that can make any star a supernova. Don Ernesto plans to bring all Askander under his control.

The Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, a radical labor union, played an important role in Oklahoma between the founding of the union in 1905 and its demise in 1930. In Oil, Wheat, & Wobblies, Nigel Anthony Sellars describes IWW efforts to organize migratory harvest hands and oil-field workers in the state and relationships between the union and other radical and labor groups such as the Socialist Party and the American Federation of Labor.Focusing on the emergence of migratory labor and the nature of the work itself in industrializing the region, Sellars provides a social history of labor in the Oklahoma wheat belt and the mid-continent oil fields. Using court cases and legislation, he examines the role of state and federal government in suppressing the union during World War I. Oil, Wheat, & Wobblies concludes with a description of the IWW revival and subsequent decline after the war, suggesting that the decline is attributable more to the union's failure to adapt to postwar technological change, its rigid attachment to outmoded tactics, and its internal policy disputes, than to political repression.