Jefferson Cowie | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Historian, author and academic |
Title | James G. Stahlman Professor of History |
Awards | Francis Parkman Prize for the Best Book in American History, Society of American Historians Merle Curti Award for Best Book in Social and/or Intellectual History, Organization of American Historians Best Book Prize, Labor History Best Book Prize, United Association for Labor Education Philip Taft Prize for the Best Book in American Labor History Choice Outstanding Academic Title Pulitzer Prize for History |
Academic background | |
Education | B.A., History Ph.D., History |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley University of North Carolina |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Vanderbilt University Cornell University |
Website | https://www.jeffersoncowie.info/ |
Jefferson Cowie is an American historian,author and an academic. He is a James G. Stahlman Professor of History and the Director of Economics and History Major at Vanderbilt University; [1] a former fellow of Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Science at Stanford University;a fellow at the Society for Humanities at Cornell University,and at the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at UC San Diego. [2]
Cowie's research focuses on the social and political history of how class,inequality,and labor affects American politics and culture. He has conducted research on labor history,U.S. social and political history,popular culture,democracy and inequality,popular movements and reform,American conservatism,and the history and ideas of social class since 1945 along with transnational and comparative labor and working-class history in the Americas. Cowie has authored various opinion pieces,essays,and journal articles. His books include Capital Moves:RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor, [3] Stayin' Alive:The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class,and The Great Exception:The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics. Cowie's work has received media recognition and an article in The Nation stated Cowie as "one our most commanding interpreters of recent American experience". [4]
Cowie is a Distinguished Lecturer at Organization of American Historians. [5]
Cowie received a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of California,Berkeley,in 1987,a Master's degree in History from the University of Washington,Seattle,in 1990,and a Ph.D. in History from the University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill,in 1997. [6]
Following his doctoral studies,Cowie held a brief appointment at University of New Mexico before joining Cornell University's ILR School as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History in 1997. In 2001,he held an appointment as an Assistant Professor of History at Cornell University and in 2004,he was promoted to Associate Professor. Cowie was promoted to Professor of History in 2012 and held the position of Andrew J. Nathanson Family Professor at ILR School from 2013 till 2015. In 2016,Cowie left Cornell University and joined Vanderbilt University as James G. Stahlman Professor of History. [1]
From 2008 till 2012,Cowie served as Inaugural House Professor and Dean of William Keeton House at Cornell University. He was chair of the Department of Labor Relations,Law,and History at the ILR School at Cornell University from 2013 to 2015. [1]
Cowie's research focuses on American conservatism,race relations,popular culture,U.S. social and political history,democracy and inequality,popular movements and reform,history and ideas of social class since 1945 along with transnational and comparative labor and working-class history in the Americas.
Cowie published his book,Capital Moves:RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor,in 1999. [7] The book was reviewed as "original and timely" [8] and an "important book written with a clear scholarly and political objective". [9] The book revolves around economic upheaval and class conflict and the effects of capital mobility for industrial relations. [10] Tim Strangleman stated that "Capital Moves weaves its narrative through notions of class,gender,race,and nationality as capital plays off the inequalities within and beyond the American labour market". [11]
In a review,Federico Romero stated that "it does not take long to recognize an excellent book,and this is one". He further stated that "Cowie writes a complex story of capital migration,class formation,and social change." [12] The book is also reviewed as "an important book that should be read by economists,historians,and indeed everyone interested in the making of modern world". [13]
Cowie's book,Stayin' Alive:The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class was published in 2010 [14] and received various awards along with media recognition. Richard Oestreicher from University of Pittsburgh stated that "the author poses big questions,imaginatively links material from what are usually separate topical specialties,and writes with considerable literary flair." [15] According to Joseph A. McCartin,the book is "as smart and lively a history of American workers in this period as we will see for a long time". [16] Robert Forran reviewed that "while the book is long and may not work in some academic settings,anyone interested in understanding why,during our recent national elections,candidates from the major political parties almost never uttered the words "working class," would do well to read Cowie's lively history." [17]
In 2011,Cowie received the Merle Curti Award and the Francis Parkman Prize for Stayin' Alive. [18]
Cowie's book,The Great Exception:The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics,which was published in 2016,is reviewed as "an engaging,thoughtful,provocative contribution" by American Politics, [19] "one of the year's most important political books" by Washington Post; [20] and as "a fresh,original look at a perennial historical conundrum" by Annals of Iowa. [21]
Meg Jacobs stated that "Cowie's book has triggered a timely debate and will be essential reading for anyone interested in the American past and present". [22] Another review stated the book as "slim,sweeping,and intentionally provocative volume",in which Cowie has asked the readers to "rethink one of the most deeply studied eras in American history:the New Deal". [23]
Cowie examines political interaction of white and black citizens in Barbour County,Alabama,home of politician George Wallace. He focuses on the issues of slavery and the "weaponization" of state means and actions to disenfranchise native and black persons,resist federal reconstruction efforts,destabilize elements of Roosevelt's New Deal and defer changes to civil rights imposed by the federal government. Cowie was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for history in recognition for this acclaimed work. [24]
The New Deal coalition was an American political coalition that supported the Democratic Party beginning in 1932. The coalition is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and the follow-up Democratic presidents. It was composed of voting blocs who supported them. The coalition included labor unions, blue-collar workers, big city machines, racial and religious minorities, white Southerners, and intellectuals. Besides voters the coalition included powerful interest groups: Democratic Party organizations in most states, city machines, labor unions, some third parties, universities, and foundations. It was largely opposed by the Republican Party, the business community, and rich Protestants. In creating his coalition, Roosevelt was at first eager to include liberal Republicans and some radical third parties, even if it meant downplaying the "Democratic" name. By the 1940s, the Republican and third-party allies had mostly been defeated. In 1948, the Democratic Party stood alone and survived the splits that created two splinter parties.
Videodisc is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access disc that contains both audio and analog video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstream popularity of the DVD format. The first mainstream official Videodisc was the Television Electronic Disc (TED) Videodisc, and the newest is the 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc. As of September 2023, the active video disc formats are Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and in other regions because of the price difference from DVD, Video CD (VCD) and SVCD.
Samuel Gompers was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's president from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL, trying to minimize jurisdictional battles. He promoted thorough organization and collective bargaining in order to secure shorter hours and higher wages, which he considered the essential first steps to emancipating labor.
Lizabeth Cohen is the current Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies in the History Department at Harvard University, as well as a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. From 2011-2018 she served as the Dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Currently, she teaches courses in 20th-century America, with a focus on urbanism, the built environment, and public history. She has also served as the Chair of the History Department at Harvard, director of the undergraduate program in history, and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, among other administrative duties.
The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of American Historians is an affiliate of the American Historical Association.
WestPoint Home, Inc., is a supplier of fashion and core home textile products. WestPoint Home is headquartered in New York City with manufacturing and distribution facilities in the United States and overseas. Their products include a diverse range of home fashion textile products including: towels, fashion bedding, sheets, comforters, blankets, mattress pads, pillows and more. Some brands that they offer include: Martex, Izod, Ralph Lauren, Hanes, Stay Bright, Vellux, Patrician, Lady Pepperell, and Utica Cotton Mills. Products from Westpoint Home are found in retail stores throughout the United States.
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Nelson Lichtenstein is an American historian. He is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy. He is a labor historian who has written also about 20th-century American political economy, including the automotive industry and Wal-Mart.
Claudia Dale Goldin is an American economic historian and labor economist. She is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. In October 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for having advanced our understanding of women's labor market outcomes”. The third woman to win the award, she was the first woman to win the award solo.
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