20th Century Social and Political History
A Brief Ascendency: American Labor After 1945, The Forum (2012)
In 1945, American labor unions optimistically expected considerable growth in the coming decades. The New...
The Long Exception: Rethinking the Place of the New Deal in American History (with Jefferson Cowie), Articles and Chapters (2008)
"The Long Exception" examines the period from Franklin Roosevelt to the end of the twentieth...
Faith, Politics, and American Culture, Articles and Chapters (2008)
[Excerpt] In January 2004, before a black church congregation in New Orleans, President George W....
America Reborn? Conservatives, Liberals, and American Political Culture Since 1945, Articles and Chapters (2006)
[Excerpt] From the perspective of the early twenty‑first century, we can chide the good professor...
Introduction to The Pullman Strike and the Crisis of the 1890’s (with Richard Schneirov and Shelton Stromquist), Articles and Chapters (1999)
The strike of Pullman carshop employees and the subsequent boycott that disrupted rail traffic throughout...
Historiography
Deeply Within: Catholicism, Faith and History, Articles and Chapters (2007)
[Excerpt] In the decade I spent living with Gene Debs, I thought much about faith's...
Introduction to Faith and the Historian: Catholic Perspectives, Articles and Chapters (2007)
[Excerpt] What follows are the essays by eight historians touched by Catholicism on the meaning...
Biography and Social History: An Intimate Relationship, Articles and Chapters (2004)
Biography has been considered as outside the discipline of history by many historians. Since the...
Ralph Fasanella: Worker, Activist, Artist, Articles and Chapters (1985)
[Excerpt] In his art, as in his life, Ralph Fasanella reminds us all of the...
Introduction to Seventy Years of Life and Labor: An Autobiography, Articles and Chapters (1984)
[Excerpt] Samuel Gompers remains a central figure in American history during the society's most intense...
Reviews
[Review of the Book The Trials of Anthony Burns: Freedom and Slavery in Emerson's Boston], Articles and Chapters (1999)
[Excerpt] The intellectual core of The Trials of Anthony Burns explores the connection between Ralph...
[Review of the Book Meatpackers: An Oral History of Black Packinghouse Workers and Their Struggle for Racial and Economic Equality], Articles and Chapters (1998)
[Excerpt] The Halpern and Horowitz volume, Meatpackers, follows creditably in this oral history tradition, even...
[Review of the Book The CIO, 1935-1955], Articles and Chapters (1996)
[Excerpt] Labor's upsurge in the 1930s remains for many even in our own time a...
[Review of the Book William Johnson’s Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro], Articles and Chapters (1995)
[Excerpt] To raise this issue of Johnson's silences and social isolation is not to engage...
[Review of the Book Icons of Democracy: American Leaders as Heroes, Aristocrats, Dissenters and Democrats], Articles and Chapters (1994)
[Excerpt] Icons of Democracy is a welcome change from the rather arid, often quantified analyses...
No subject area
Preface to Singing in a Strange Land, Articles and Chapters (2005)
Salvatore delves into the life of the one of the most influential clergyman in twentieth-century...
Introduction to We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webber, Articles and Chapters (1996)
[Excerpt] Who was this Amos Webber who assumed such a prominent role in this public,...
The Decline of Labor: A Grim Picture, A Few Proposals, Articles and Chapters (1992)
[Excerpt] The social context of this four-decade decline challenges a central assumption of the cyclical...
Two Tales of a City: Nineteenth-Century Black Philadelphia, Articles and Chapters (1991)
[Excerpt] In the tension between Forging Freedom and Roots of Violence certain themes present themselves...