"The Objects That Immigrants Packed Tell a Story About What It Meant to Leave Home Forever." @irpinaingiro.bsky.social @hidehirota.bsky.social @grainnemcevoy.bsky.social @ciantmcmahon.bsky.social @josephsciorra.bsky.social @tedsmyth.bsky.social @nyupress.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.nyu.edu/about/news-p...

I discovered Tom Alter's work when I was tracing the legacies of Irish agrarian radicalism and I came across his research on the collaboration between Mexican and Irish radicals in the Texas Socialist Party.

Tom Alter has been fired after a supposed "due process" hearing. This is an extremely dangerous violation of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Please donate and sign. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fr...

Don't forget to mark your calendars for LABOR's Big Book Forum (Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET, via Zoom) featuring @rbatzell.bsky.social's new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery. The event is free and open to the public. Register today! go.umd.edu/LaborBigBook2025

Very much looking forward to discussing "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery" with @rbatzell.bsky.social, Lara Vapnek, Richard Price, and & Naomi R. Willians in @lawcha.bsky.social's 2025 Labor Book Big Forum, Friday, October 17, 2pm to 4pm ET online ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Just landed in Atlanta for @asalh-bhm.bsky.social and excited to be participating in this new books roundtable this afternoon with Gus Wood and Naomi R Williams. So honored to have Joe Trotter as chair.

We are excited to announce Labor's Big Book Forum for 2025! Scheduled for Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET via Zoom, this year we feature Rudi Batzell's (@rbatzell.bsky.social) new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery (@uchicagopress.bsky.social)

248 pages. 80,000+ words. 10 years in the making. It’s out of my hands (for) now. 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Read the Sun-Times article here: chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-t...

Quoted the great WEB DuBois in a letter to the Chicago Sun Times on OSHA nominee David Keeling, infamous for making UPS drivers cook, and why the history of slavery that Trump wants to hide from matters because it helps explain why US workers are so likely to be killed at work.

@rbatzell.bsky.social discussed his new book, "Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery," on today's episode of America's Work Force Union Podcast. Check out the latest installment in the Labor 131 series via the link below. www.podbean.com/media/share/...

I am very sorry for publishing an OpEd with the Post Gazette while the @pghguild.com continues its strike. I am very embarrassed and sorry this happened. I was unaware of the strike. Still, there are no excuses for crossing a picket line.

OpEd this weekend using the history of the fugitive slave law and the story of Pittsburgh man kidnapped into slavery to examine the oppression and terror of ICE enforcement in immigrant communities

"Resistance to ICE Recalls Resistance to Slavery in the 1850s" - excited and honored to have a guest Op-Ed in the West Coast's oldest and largest Black newspaper, the Los Angeles Sentinel lasentinel.net/resistance-t...

The resource that I've been working on for the past year has recently been released. It gathers the lost debates of the Irish Parliament from 1776-1801 - a period of deep upheaval in Ireland and the Atlantic world. Please explore at: virtualtreasury.ie/gold-seams/i...

BE CAREFUL ON CALIFORNIA SOUTH OF DEVON SOUTHBOUND. On my way to the Chicago Cycling Club Monday night group ride I hit the seam between the asphalt and concrete and came down hard on my right side. Broken hip and wrist, was in the hospital for a week with major surgery on hip. #cycling #chicago

Was incredible to talk with the great Dr. Gerald Horne about my book, Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery, on his show Freedom Now a few weeks ago. Just found out it aired on @kpfk907fm.bsky.social this morning.

As soon I can walk, I'm tracking down the seemingly harmless seam in the road that did this to me. Cyclists look out for gaps/steps between asphalt roads and the concrete pads installed at many bus stops in Chicago.

A lot happening all at once here in LA. So much that is shared online, while fascinating, may be more atmospheric than informational. Reporters @laist.com have thorough update and no paywall. Support public media! laist.com/brief/news/f...

I so agree, @rbatzell.bsky.social. The AHA needs to face up to its problem with democracy

Very disappointing to see this 'letter' on the AHA elections that completely ignores the actual reasons the regular slate is being challenged: AHA members voted overwhelmingly for a resolution condemning scholasticide in Gaza and the executive council vetoed it.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

If you are in Chicago next Thursday night, please join me and some bad-ass folks for a National Day of Action teach in on the Assault on Science, Humanities, and Human Rights:

My book has arrived! Thanks to @uchicagopress.bsky.social for making sure it shipped in time for the @oah.org roundtable! Grateful, excited, and a bit nervous to have such an amazing crew respond to the project.

My book 💙📚 has a cover! Strange to have so many years of work distilled into a single image, but the designers @uchicagopress.bsky.social did a great job!

MLK in 1968 speech to mark Du Bois' 100th Birthday

Kicking off parental leave with a lentil turkey stock soup improvisation that grew to unexpected proportions

Excited to be in New York for the AHA, panel tomorrow on Race, Labor, and Empire. Just catching the tail end of the conference but get in touch if you're around.

I’m not remotely unbiased but this show is so, so good—incredible to see a big museum show with this kind of conceptual coherence through hundreds of pieces from across a century and much of the world

Everyone who thinks invoking "settler colonialism" and decolonization" = moral simplicity is revealing that they haven't thought in any detail about these ideas and refuse to do so

It's been a good semester of bike commuting. One last ride up and back for final exams. #cycling

Concluding our regional series is this incredible episode on the West, covering violent and internecine workers’ struggles in agriculture, freight, canneries, and logistics (connected industries), as well as the wartime aviation boom podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

“Intellectual diversity is essentially a fake problem that is used to create cover for ideologically committed, far-right faculty who are not intellectually honest.” Craig Campbell, UT anthropology professor. www.austinchronicle.com/news/2024-11...

I am thrilled to share the cover of my forthcoming book, I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom (June 2025 @yalepress.bsky.social) The stunning painting is by Haitian-American artist Ulrick Jean-Pierre (ulrickjeanpierre.com) yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Now here's some good news for the weekend. A unit of nearly 10,000 workers!

Taking a break from doomscrolling to let you fine people know my job market paper, "Monumental effects: Confederate monuments in the Post-Reconstruction South," is now out in pre-print at Explorations in Economic History!

I wish everyone would accept that things really can change – in either direction: It really could get much, much worse. But it could also get better. There is nothing inevitable about either doom or progress, nor are we fated/guaranteed to experience the status quo for all eternity.

Too many platforms and apps, I can barely figure this stuff out. Is this where things are going?