James Green (educator)
Encyclopedia
James Green is a professor of history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston
. He is also a well-known author and labor activist.
, a suburb of Chicago.
In 1966, he received a bachelor's degree
from Northwestern University
. During his time at Northwestern, Green was deeply influenced by President John F. Kennedy
's famous civil rights
address on national television on June 11, 1963, the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
later that same evening, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
's "I Have a Dream
" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
in August 1963. Green interned in the summer of 1965 and 1966 in the office of Senator Paul Douglas
.
While working in the nation's capital, Green met Senator Eugene McCarthy
, and later worked on McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign.
From 1966 to 1968, Green was a Woodrow Wilson fellow
conducting historical research in Washington, D.C.
Green entered Yale University
to work on his doctorate
. He was a member of the Student Strike Coordinating Committee which led a mass rally, teach-in and demonstration on May 1, 1970. More than 15,000 people jammed the Yale campus from Friday through Sunday to protest the arrest and murder trial
of Black Panther
leader Bobby Seale
.
.
When the magazine Radical America moved from Madison, Wisconsin
, to Boston in 1971, Green began writing for the former SDS
-run publication, Radical America. A 1974 Radical America article by Green and co-author Allen Hunter outlining the history of school desegregation
in Boston prior to the 1974 school-busing crisis, "Racism and Busing in Boston," was widely quoted in the media.
Green received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1972. Green studied under the legendary historian C. Vann Woodward
, and became acquainted with the leftist historians Eric Hobsbawm
and Herbert Gutman
. During this time he also was involved in the anti-war movement
, which eventually sparked his interest in the history of radicalism
in the United States
.
Green took a position as a lecturer in history at the University of Warwick
during the 1975 to 1976 term. He became involved in the History Workshop
, a group of historians who focused research on workers and local movements rather than national trends, markets and large organizations. Green's subsequent work was heavily influenced by the theories of the History Workshop, and he became an active proponent of the "new labor history
" movement in the U.S.
In 1977, Green left Brandeis and was appointed an associate professor of history and labor studies in the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. (He is now a full professor.) In December of that year and into early 1978, Green worked in West Virginia
, covering a national strike
by coal miners who had defied (for a few days) a Taft-Hartley Act
back-to-work order by President Jimmy Carter
.
In 1978, Green co-founded the Massachusetts History Workshop with Susan Reverby and Martin Blatt, two other Boston-area labor historians. The project, an exercise in "new labor history," brought workers and academics together to explore labor history and to identify common concerns and issues. He wrote a number of articles on this effort to democratize social history as well as a number of reflections in his autobioraphical book "Taking History to Heart." The project folded in the late 1980s. Oral histories the Workshop collected are now housed at the Schlesinger Library
at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
at Harvard
.
Green's interest in radicalism and his experiences in West Virginia led him to become involved in the American labor movement in the 1980s. In 1981, he created a labor studies major at UMass-Boston, and started teaching leadership training workshops for unions such as the United Mine Workers of America.
In 1987, in addition to continuing on the faculty at UMass-Boston, Green was named a lecturer at the Harvard Trade Union Program (now called the Labor and Worklife Program) at Harvard Law School
.
In 1998, Green was named a Fullbright scholar
and taught at the University of Genoa
in Italy
.
In the spring of 2008, Green left the College of Public and Community Service and joined the History Department at University of Massachusetts Boston
. Since then, he has been working on several research projects, one which is currently in the works deals with the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1912.
s.
In 1989, Green was supporting coal miners who had struck the Pittston Coal Group
. Documentary film-maker Barbara Kopple
, commissioned to create a centennial history of the United Mine Workers, was there filming the strike and employed Green as a consultant. The film became Out of Darkness: The Mine Workers' Story. He received an associate producer credit on the picture.
In 1992 and 1993, Green worked as a researcher and consultant on "The Great Depression," a seven-part documentary which aired by the PBS
television show, "American Experience
". Afterward, he served on the community advisory board of local Boston public television station, WGBH
, from 1993 to 1994.
From 1995 to 1996, Green served as a consultant to the film The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers. The film later aired on PBS.
s in the U.S. (including new social movements), as well as the history of labor unions in the United States
. Green writes social and political history from "the bottom up." He writes from a leftist
theoretical standpoint.
One of Green's earliest published works, The World of the Worker, is noted for its revisionist
take on American labor history. The work came about after historian Eric Foner
challenged Green to write the history of the American labor movement from a new labor history
perspective.
Green's 2000 book, Taking History to Heart, had a deep impact in the academic history community. The book is a semi-autobiographical account of the role historical awareness plays in forging powerful, effective social movements. Writing in a colloquial style, Green discussed how important historical events such as the Haymarket riot, the Bread and Roses
strike, and the civil rights movement influenced his own life. He vividly describes these events, and ended up not only writing terrific historical narratives but showed how those stories encouraged his own participation in various causes. In many ways, the book is a written example of Green's lifelong struggle to take history out of the ivory tower and make it come alive and be relevant to working people and community activists. The book received praise from academics for encouraging the reconnection of academia to society.
In 2006, Green published Death in the Haymarket, a popularized history of the Haymarket riot. Although not noted for its path-breaking research, the book was a best-seller that was reviewed favorably in various publications like The New Yorker
, The Nation
, Chicago Tribune
, and was chosen by The Progressive
as one of the best non-fiction books of the year.
Currently, Green is working on another book, which is slated for publishing by the end of next year, that highlights the West Virginia Mine Wars.
in 1977 to deliver a series of public lectures on Boston-area labor unions.
In 1977, Green's article, "Tenant Farmer Discontent and Socialist Protest in Texas," won Southwestern Historical Quarterly magazine's H. Bailey Carroll Award for the best article published by the journal during the preceding year.
In 1983, Green's introduction to the reprint edition of Oscar Ameringer's autobiography, If You Don't Weaken, received the Bryant Spann Memorial Prize from the Eugene V. Debs Foundation as the best scholarly work of the year concerning social reform or radical activism.
Green is a member of the Labor and Working-Class History Association
(LAWCHA). He was a vice president of LAWCHA from 2001 to 2003 and its president from 2003 to 2005.
From 2001 to 2002, Green was an associate editor at Labor History. In February 2004, Green helped organize a revolt by the entire editorial board of the journal Labor History
. The editorial board as well as much of the staff left that publication after a disagreement with publisher Taylor and Francis
over the direction of the journal. According to Leon Fink
, the former editor of Labor History, the principal issue was maintaining the journal's editorial independence
. Green helped negotiate an agreement which led to the founding of Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas
, which is co-published by LAWCHA and Duke University Press
. He serves as an associate editor of the new journal.
Green is the former board president of The Welcome Project (TWP) in Somerville, MA. TWP is an organization that works with immigrants and refugees in the city of Somerville.
Green is a Full Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the second largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. The university is located on on Harbor Point in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States...
. He is also a well-known author and labor activist.
Early life and education
Green was born in 1944 to Gerald and Mary Green in Oak Park, IllinoisOak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
, a suburb of Chicago.
In 1966, he received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. During his time at Northwestern, Green was deeply influenced by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's famous civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
address on national television on June 11, 1963, the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi...
later that same evening, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
's "I Have a Dream
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
in August 1963. Green interned in the summer of 1965 and 1966 in the office of Senator Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas
Paul Howard Douglas was an liberal American politician and University of Chicago economist. A war hero, he was elected as a Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois from in the 1948 landslide, serving until his defeat in 1966...
.
While working in the nation's capital, Green met Senator Eugene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy was an American politician, poet, and a long-time member of the United States Congress from Minnesota. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971.In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first...
, and later worked on McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign.
From 1966 to 1968, Green was a Woodrow Wilson fellow
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is a private non-profit foundation based in Princeton, New Jersey. It administers programs that support leadership development and build organizational capacity in education. Its current signature program is the...
conducting historical research in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Green entered Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
to work on his doctorate
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
. He was a member of the Student Strike Coordinating Committee which led a mass rally, teach-in and demonstration on May 1, 1970. More than 15,000 people jammed the Yale campus from Friday through Sunday to protest the arrest and murder trial
New Haven Black Panther trials
In 1970 there were a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to felony murder. All indictments stemmed from the murder of nineteen-year-old Alex Rackley in the early hours of May 21,...
of Black Panther
Black panther
A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...
leader Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale
Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:...
.
Academic career
In the fall of 1970, Green was appointed an assistant professor of history at Brandeis UniversityBrandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
.
When the magazine Radical America moved from Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, to Boston in 1971, Green began writing for the former SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
-run publication, Radical America. A 1974 Radical America article by Green and co-author Allen Hunter outlining the history of school desegregation
Desegregation busing
Desegregation busing in the United States is the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools in such a manner as to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics.In 1954, the U.S...
in Boston prior to the 1974 school-busing crisis, "Racism and Busing in Boston," was widely quoted in the media.
Green received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1972. Green studied under the legendary historian C. Vann Woodward
C. Vann Woodward
Comer Vann Woodward was a preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by...
, and became acquainted with the leftist historians Eric Hobsbawm
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm , CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian, public intellectual, and author...
and Herbert Gutman
Herbert Gutman
Herbert Gutman was an American professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he wrote on slavery and labor history.-Early life and education:...
. During this time he also was involved in the anti-war movement
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
, which eventually sparked his interest in the history of radicalism
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Green took a position as a lecturer in history at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
during the 1975 to 1976 term. He became involved in the History Workshop
History Workshop Journal
The History Workshop is a movement founded by Raphael Samuel. Its main role was to promote the historiographical tradition known variously as History from below, the history of everyday life, or simply the people's history...
, a group of historians who focused research on workers and local movements rather than national trends, markets and large organizations. Green's subsequent work was heavily influenced by the theories of the History Workshop, and he became an active proponent of the "new labor history
New labor history
New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history....
" movement in the U.S.
In 1977, Green left Brandeis and was appointed an associate professor of history and labor studies in the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. (He is now a full professor.) In December of that year and into early 1978, Green worked in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, covering a national strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
by coal miners who had defied (for a few days) a Taft-Hartley Act
Taft-Hartley Act
The Labor–Management Relations Act is a United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions. The act, still effective, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and became law by overriding U.S. President Harry S...
back-to-work order by President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
.
In 1978, Green co-founded the Massachusetts History Workshop with Susan Reverby and Martin Blatt, two other Boston-area labor historians. The project, an exercise in "new labor history," brought workers and academics together to explore labor history and to identify common concerns and issues. He wrote a number of articles on this effort to democratize social history as well as a number of reflections in his autobioraphical book "Taking History to Heart." The project folded in the late 1980s. Oral histories the Workshop collected are now housed at the Schlesinger Library
Schlesinger Library
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F...
at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard is an educational institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the semiautonomous components of Harvard University. It is heir to the name and buildings of Radcliffe College, but unlike that historical institution, its focus is directed...
at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
Green's interest in radicalism and his experiences in West Virginia led him to become involved in the American labor movement in the 1980s. In 1981, he created a labor studies major at UMass-Boston, and started teaching leadership training workshops for unions such as the United Mine Workers of America.
In 1987, in addition to continuing on the faculty at UMass-Boston, Green was named a lecturer at the Harvard Trade Union Program (now called the Labor and Worklife Program) at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.
In 1998, Green was named a Fullbright scholar
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
and taught at the University of Genoa
University of Genoa
The University of Genoa is one of the largest universities in Italy.Located in Liguria on the Italian Riviera, the university was founded in 1471. It currently has about 40,000 students, 1,800 teaching and research staff and about 1,580 administrative staff.- Campus :The University of Genoa is...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
In the spring of 2008, Green left the College of Public and Community Service and joined the History Department at University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the second largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. The university is located on on Harbor Point in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States...
. Since then, he has been working on several research projects, one which is currently in the works deals with the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1912.
Documentary film work
Green's interest in labor history and involvement in the American labor movement has led him to become involved with a number of documentary filmDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s.
In 1989, Green was supporting coal miners who had struck the Pittston Coal Group
The Brink's Company
The Brink's Company is a security and protection company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Its core business is Brink’s, Incorporated; it spun off its Brink’s Home Security operations into a separate company in 2008. In 2005, the company reported a total of 54,000 employees and...
. Documentary film-maker Barbara Kopple
Barbara Kopple
Barbara Kopple is an American film director, primarily known for her work in documentary film.-Biography:She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.Kopple has won two...
, commissioned to create a centennial history of the United Mine Workers, was there filming the strike and employed Green as a consultant. The film became Out of Darkness: The Mine Workers' Story. He received an associate producer credit on the picture.
In 1992 and 1993, Green worked as a researcher and consultant on "The Great Depression," a seven-part documentary which aired by the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television show, "American Experience
American Experience
American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history...
". Afterward, he served on the community advisory board of local Boston public television station, WGBH
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
, from 1993 to 1994.
From 1995 to 1996, Green served as a consultant to the film The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers. The film later aired on PBS.
Research
Green's research focuses on radical political and social movementSocial movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s in the U.S. (including new social movements), as well as the history of labor unions in the United States
Labor unions in the United States
Labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and police...
. Green writes social and political history from "the bottom up." He writes from a leftist
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
theoretical standpoint.
One of Green's earliest published works, The World of the Worker, is noted for its revisionist
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
take on American labor history. The work came about after historian Eric Foner
Eric Foner
Eric Foner is an American historian. On the faculty of the Department of History at Columbia University since 1982, he writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography...
challenged Green to write the history of the American labor movement from a new labor history
New labor history
New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history....
perspective.
Green's 2000 book, Taking History to Heart, had a deep impact in the academic history community. The book is a semi-autobiographical account of the role historical awareness plays in forging powerful, effective social movements. Writing in a colloquial style, Green discussed how important historical events such as the Haymarket riot, the Bread and Roses
Bread and Roses
The slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in The American Magazine in December 1911, which attributed it to "the women in the West." It is commonly associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January-March 1912, now often...
strike, and the civil rights movement influenced his own life. He vividly describes these events, and ended up not only writing terrific historical narratives but showed how those stories encouraged his own participation in various causes. In many ways, the book is a written example of Green's lifelong struggle to take history out of the ivory tower and make it come alive and be relevant to working people and community activists. The book received praise from academics for encouraging the reconnection of academia to society.
In 2006, Green published Death in the Haymarket, a popularized history of the Haymarket riot. Although not noted for its path-breaking research, the book was a best-seller that was reviewed favorably in various publications like The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, and was chosen by The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
as one of the best non-fiction books of the year.
Currently, Green is working on another book, which is slated for publishing by the end of next year, that highlights the West Virginia Mine Wars.
Awards
Green has been the recipient of a numbers of awards and honors. He was a Woodrow Wilson Foundation fellow in 1966, and he received a grant from the National Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
in 1977 to deliver a series of public lectures on Boston-area labor unions.
In 1977, Green's article, "Tenant Farmer Discontent and Socialist Protest in Texas," won Southwestern Historical Quarterly magazine's H. Bailey Carroll Award for the best article published by the journal during the preceding year.
In 1983, Green's introduction to the reprint edition of Oscar Ameringer's autobiography, If You Don't Weaken, received the Bryant Spann Memorial Prize from the Eugene V. Debs Foundation as the best scholarly work of the year concerning social reform or radical activism.
Memberships and professional positions
From 1971 until the magazine's demise in 1999, Green was part of the editorial collective which oversaw the journal Radical America, and he was a frequent contributor to the publication. In 1995, Green founded the Labor Resource Center at UMass-Boston.Green is a member of the Labor and Working-Class History Association
Labor and Working-Class History Association
Labor and Working-Class History Association is a non-profit association of academics, educators, students, and labor movement and other activists that promotes research into and publication of materials on the history of the labor movement in North and South America...
(LAWCHA). He was a vice president of LAWCHA from 2001 to 2003 and its president from 2003 to 2005.
From 2001 to 2002, Green was an associate editor at Labor History. In February 2004, Green helped organize a revolt by the entire editorial board of the journal Labor History
Labor History (journal)
Labor History is an inter-disciplinary, peer reviewed journal which publishes articles regarding the history of the labor movement in the United States, Europe and other regions and countries....
. The editorial board as well as much of the staff left that publication after a disagreement with publisher Taylor and Francis
Taylor and Francis
Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...
over the direction of the journal. According to Leon Fink
Leon Fink (historian)
Leon Fink is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A historian, his research and writing focuses on labor unions in the United States, immigration and the nature of work...
, the former editor of Labor History, the principal issue was maintaining the journal's editorial independence
Editorial independence
Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
. Green helped negotiate an agreement which led to the founding of Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas
Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas
Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas is a peer reviewed quarterly journal which publishes articles regarding the history of the labor movement in the United States. It is the official journal of the Labor and Working-Class History Association and is published by Duke University...
, which is co-published by LAWCHA and Duke University Press
Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher of books and journals, and a unit of Duke University. It publishes approximately 120 books annually and more than 40 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections...
. He serves as an associate editor of the new journal.
Green is the former board president of The Welcome Project (TWP) in Somerville, MA. TWP is an organization that works with immigrants and refugees in the city of Somerville.
Green is a Full Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Solely authored books
- (1978) Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895-1943 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press) (ISBN 0-8071-0773-5)
- (1998) The World of the Worker: Labor in Twentieth Century America (Paperback reprint ed- first published in 1980) (Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press) (ISBN 0-252-06734-7)
- (2000) Taking History to Heart: The Power of the Past in Building Social Movements (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press) (ISBN 1-55849-241-0)
- (2006) Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America (New York: Pantheon Books) (ISBN 0-375-42237-4)
Co-authored books
- (1979) Boston's Workers: A Labor History by James Green & Hugh C. Donahue (Boston: Boston Public Library) (ISBN 0-89073-056-3)
- (1996) Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters from the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions by Tom Juravich, James Green & William Hartford (Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press) (ISBN 1-55849-045-0)
Solely edited books
- (1983) Workers' Struggles, Past and Present: A 'Radical America' Reader (Philadelphia: Temple University Press) (ISBN 0-87722-293-2)
Solely authored articles
- (1973, August) "The Brotherhood of Timber Workers, 1910-1913: A Radical Response to Industrial Capitalism in the Southern U.S.A" Past and Present No. 60
- (1978, July/August) "Holding the Line: Miners' Militancy and the 1977-78 Coal Strike" Radical America 12:4
- (1977, October) "Tenant Farmer Discontent and Socialist Protest in Texas" Southwestern Historical Quarterly 81:2
- (1989) "Workers, Unions, and the Politics of Public History" The Public Historian 11:2
- (1993, August) "Democracy Comes to Little Siberia: Steel Worker Organizing in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, 1933-1937" Labor's Heritage 5:3
- (2004, Spring) "Crime Against Memory at Ludlow" Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas 1:1
Co-authored articles
- (1974, November/December) "Racism and Busing in Boston" by James Green & Allen Hunter Radical America. 8:6
Solely authored book chapters
- (1983) "Introduction." In "If You Don't Weaken: The Autobiography of Oscar Ameringer" by Oscar Ameringer (Reprint edition) (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press) (ISBN 0-8061-1861-X)
- (1996) "Tying the Knot of Solidarity: The Pittston Strike of 1989-1990" In United Mine Workers of America: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? by John H.M. Laslett, (ed. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press), (ISBN 0-271-01537-3)
Co-authored book chapters
- (1990) "The Long Strike: The Practice of Solidarity Among Boston Packinghouse Workers, 1954-55" by James Green & Jim Bollen, In Labor in Massachusetts 1788–1988, Selected Essays. by Martin Kaufman and Kenneth Fones-Wolf, (eds. Westfield, Mass.: Institute for Massachusetts Studies)
External links
- Bryant Spann Memorial Prize, Eugene V. Debs Foundation eugenevdebs.com
- The Fight in the Fields pbs.org
- H. Bailey Carroll Award, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Texas Historical Association tshaonline.org
- Labor and Working Class History Association lawcha.org
- Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School law.harvard.edu
- Labor Resource Center, College of Public and Community Service, UMass-Boston cpcs.umb.edu/lrc
- Radical America archives, Digital Collections, Brown University Library lib.brown.edu
- Radical America Web site radicalamericas.org
- Records of the Massachusetts History Workshop, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College harvard.edu
- Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation woodrow.org/