S3, Episode 1: Joe William Trotter Jr. on the Story of Black Labor in Building Industrial America Artwork

Off the Shelf: Revolutionary Readings in Times of Crisis

"Off the Shelf: Revolutionary Readings in Times of Crisis" is a podcast series featuring in-depth conversations with Black scholars on the University of Illinois campus and beyond. Each episode explores books and scholars they recommend we take “off the shelf” to help us understand these revolutionary times and creative agendas for the here and now. Hosted by Dr. Augustus Wood, a scholar of political economy and gentrification, labor, and social movements in late 20th and early 21st century African American urban history.

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Off the Shelf: Revolutionary Readings in Times of Crisis

S3, Episode 1: Joe William Trotter Jr. on the Story of Black Labor in Building Industrial America

September 07, 2022 • Humanities Research Institute • Season 3 • Episode 1

In this season opener, host Augustus Wood and guest Joe William Trotter Jr. (history and social justice, Carnegie Mellon University) engage in a deep discussion of Black working class history, grounded in Trotter's pathbreaking research and published works, notably Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915-45 and Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America.

Trotter illuminates an often-untold story: that Black labor was essential to the building of industrial America and that workers "produced and enriched the cities in which they lived." Wood and Trotter unpack why the story of Black labor must include not only workers' agency and productivity, but also an accounting of the struggles experienced then and now. Note: this episode was recorded in May 2022.

Show notes and transcript