Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below

by Staughton Lynd

Overview

In the 1960s historians on both sides of the Atlantic began to challenge the assumptions of their colleagues and push for an understanding of history "from below." In this collection, Staughton Lynd, himself one of the pioneers of this approach, laments the passing of fellow luminaries David Montgomery, E.P. Thompson, Alfred Young, and Howard Zinn, and makes the case that contemporary academics and activists alike should take more seriously the stories and perspectives of Native Americans, slaves, rank-and-file workers, and other still-too-frequently marginalized voices.

Staughton Lynd is an American conscientious objector, Quaker, peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author, and lawyer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608463886
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	12/09/2014
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Staughton Lynd received a BA from Harvard, an MA and PhD from Columbia, and a JD from the University of Chicago. He taught American history at Spelman College in Atlanta, where one of his students was the future Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker, and at Yale University. Staughton served as director of Freedom Schools in the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964, and has written or edited numerous books.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Staughton Lynd and "Doing History" by Edward Countryman vii

Preface and Acknowledgments xi

Credits xix

Part I Mentors and Exemplars

Introduction 1

E. P. Thompson: In Memoriam 3

Edward Thompson's Warrens 11

Howard Zinn 21

The Ex-Bombardier 22

Overcoming Racism 25

People's History 29

Working-Class Self-Activity 34

Part II Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below

Introduction 41

Guerrilla History in Gary 47

"Your Dog Don't Bark No More" 55

The Possibility of Radicalism in the Early 1930s: The Case of Steel 61

Local 1330 v. U.S. Steel 79

"We Are All We've Got": Building a Retiree Movement in Youngstown, Ohio 89

Solidarity Unionism 107

"We Are All Leaders": The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s 123

Afterword 141

Notes 151

Index 167