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Wondering if anyone can help me with this passage from the first chapter of
Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" (1929):

"The strike lasted eight months. Both sides bled plenty. The wobblies had
to do their own bleeding. Old Elihu hired gunmen, strike-breakers, national
guardsmen and even parts of the regular army, to do his. When the last
skull had been cracked, the last rib kicked in, organized labor in
Personville was a used firecracker.

But, said Bill Quint, Old Elihu didn’t know his Italian history. He won the
strike, but he lost his hold on the city and the state. To beat the miners
he had to let his hired thugs run wild. When the fight was over he couldn’t
get rid of them. He had given his city to them and he wasn’t strong enough
to take it away from them. Personville looked good to them and they took it
over. They had won his strike for him and they took the city for their
spoils."

What's that about Italian history? What's he referring to?
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