In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes, Vanessa Richardson examines the rise and fall of the Pullman Company Town, a planned industrial community built outside Chicago in the 1880s. Created by railroad magnate George Pullman, the town was designed to provide workers with housing, stores, churches, and strict moral oversight under corporate control. While promoted as a model society, Pullman tightly regulated daily life, wages, and behavior, fostering criticism that the town functioned less like a community and more like a paternalistic social experiment. When economic downturn led to wage cuts without reduced rents, tensions erupted into the violent Pullman Strike of 1894. This episode explores the structure of the company town, the power dynamics at play, and how corporate control over workers’ lives fueled one of the most significant labor conflicts in American history.

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