Seeking Panelists and Chair for Panel on Radical Traditions and Social Movements in the Long 20th Century

[mattfs...@gmail.com]

I am seeking panelists and a chair for a panel on radical traditions and social movements in the Long 20th Century. More specifically I am interested in exploring the movement of ideas and individuals between radical movements from roughly Reconstruction until WWII (although the chronology could be broader, encompassing the civil rights movement of the 1950s/1960s and beyond). 

My work looks at the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union of the 1930s and its connection through both ideology and movement participants to earlier radical movements and traditions such as the southwestern agrarian socialism of the early-twentieth century and the black freedom struggle in the South of the same time period. More specifically I use radical uprisings such as the Green Corn Rebellion in Oklahoma and the counter-revolt which resulted in the Elaine Massacre in Arkansas to demonstrate the changing understanding of the limitations of working-class organization and agitation along strictly racial lines by both poor black and white tenant farmers and sharecroppers. As a result, I argue the STFU consciously adopted a multi-racial, class-based organizing model which drew on earlier movements for inspiration and for its early leadership cadre without which it would never have spread as quickly and as far as it did in its first few years of existence.

More broadly speaking this panel could include papers related to the transmission of radical ideas/people between social movements both within the U.S. or transnationally across borders. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Matt Simmons   

[mattfs...@gmail.com]

We now have a second panelist who will be presenting research on the Alabama roots and Great Migration-era maturation of the only two African American congressmen during the interwar period, Congressman Oscar DePriest and Congressman Arthur Mitchell, and how this influenced their approach to black empowerment and civil rights politics during the New Deal-era.

[tej...@gmail.com]

Very interesting topics... Do you need a Commentator?

-- Tejasvi Nagaraja

https://warrencenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/tejasvi-nagaraja

[franklinde...@gmail.com]

I have something on Michael Harrington, economist Robert S. Browne, and the socialist interpretation of the full employment movement of the 1970s, which echoed and expanded on the social democratic notions underlying the Humphrey-Hawkins bill. Interested?

Michael Dennis 

[dasc...@gmail.com]

This all sounds really interesting! I'm writing about how 19th century/early 20th century American radicals, including Radical Republicans, Populists, and Socialists of the Debs era (including the Victor Berger and IWW factions) thought about political parties and the possibilities of social transformation through or outside the party system.

 

-Daniel

 

Daniel Schlozman

Joseph and Bertha Bernstein Assistant Professor

Department of Political Science

Johns Hopkins University

Mergenthaler Hall 278

3400 N. Charles Street

Baltimore, MD 21218

[mattfs...@gmail.com]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for reaching out. I am always interested in topics related to Michael Harrington-unfortunately our panel is now complete with five members. Best of luck and I hope to see you in Durham.

MS

[mattfs...@gmail.com]

Dear Dr. Schlozman,

Thank you for reaching out. Your paper sounds quite interesting and would potentially be a great fit for this panel-unfortunately the panel is now complete with five presenters and a commentator. If you would be open to chairing the panel that is certainly a possibility and you would be a more than welcome addition.

MS

[mattfs...@gmail.com]

Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in this panel. Our panel is now complete.