Joseph McCartin
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Joseph Anthony McCartin (born May 12, 1959) is an American historian and professor of history at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
. His research focuses on
labor unions in the United States Labor unions represent United States workers in many industries recognized under US labor law since the 1935 enactment of the National Labor Relations Act. Their activity centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working cond ...
. He also serves as the executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.


Early life and education

McCartin was born in
Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Suffolk County ( ) is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in ...
, in 1959. He is the son of Joseph and Marybeth McCartin. Joseph McCartin is of Irish descent, and resided in
Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...
, as a child. In 1981, McCartin received his
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in history from the
College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...
in
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
. In 1985, he received a
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
from
Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...
, where he would also complete his
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
in 1990. From 1990 to 1992, he was a lecturer at the
University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...
. In 1992, he was appointed an assistant professor at the
State University of New York at Geneseo The State University of New York College at Geneseo (SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo State College or, colloquially, "Geneseo") is a public liberal arts college in Geneseo, New York. It is New York's public honors college and part of the State University ...
. In 1998 he was promoted to associate professor, and in 1999, McCartin took a position at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, where he is now a professor and the executive director of th
Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
His brother is noted Catholic historian James McCartin.


Research focus

McCartin is a historical institutionalist whose research focuses on the history of
labor unions in the United States Labor unions represent United States workers in many industries recognized under US labor law since the 1935 enactment of the National Labor Relations Act. Their activity centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working cond ...
during the 20th century. McCartin is a strong advocate of
industrial democracy Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the deci ...
, an economic arrangement in which workers share in the management of the workplace. He has challenged many of the labor movement's closely held beliefs, including the idea that the PATCO air traffic controllers' strike of 1981 began, rather than culminated, an attack on labor rights in the United States. According to the review by Braham Dabscheck in a leading British scholarly journal, his ''Collision Course'';Braham Dabscheck, Review, ''Labour History'', No. 102 (May 2012), pp. 218-21
online
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provides a compelling and thorough account of the background to this dispute, its machinations and broader implications. It is a tour-de-force, an exemplary work of scholarship....he interviewed more than 100 people involved in the dispute.... ehunted down official sources and documents as well as the records and memorabilia of PATCO and its members and supporters in various facilities across the nation. His narrative includes blow-by-blow accounts of meetings and negotiation sessions held, whether they are within PATCO, the FAA and the White House or across the bargaining table.


Awards

McCartin's 1997 book, ''Labor’s Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-21'', won the 1999
Philip Taft Labor History Book Award The Philip Taft Labor History Book Award is sponsored by the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in cooperation with the Labor and Working-Class History Association for books relating to labor history of the United States ...
for the best book on labor history. McCartin's article, " 'Fire the Hell Out of Them': Sanitation Workers' Struggles and the Normalization of the Striker Replacement Strategy in the 1970s", won the Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas prize as the best article on labor history published in 2005. McCartin was named a fellow of the
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
in 1993 and again in 2002. In 2003, he was named a Charles Warren Fellow at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.


Bibliography


Books

*''Labor’s Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-21.'' Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997. *Dubofsky, Melvyn. '' We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World.'' Abridged edition. Joseph A. McCartin, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. * McCartin, Joseph A. and Dubofsky, Melvyn. ''American Labor: A Documentary Collection.'' New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004. *Kazin, Michael and McCartin, Joseph A, eds. ''Americanism: New Perspectives on the History of an Ideal.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. * ''Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America.'' Oxford University Press, 2011. *Leon Fink, Joseph A. McCartin, and Joan Sangster, eds. ''Workers in Hard Times: A Long View of Economic Crises.'' University of Illinois Press, 2014. . *Milkman, Ruth. ''What Works for Workers: Public Policies and Innovative Strategies for Low Wage Workers.'' Stephanie Luce, Jennifer Luff, and Joseph A. McCartin, eds. Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2014.


Articles and book chapters

*"Democratizing the Demand for Workers’ Rights: Toward a Reframing of Labor's Argument." ''Dissent.'' 2005. *" 'Fire the Hell Out of Them': Sanitation Workers’ Struggles and the Normalization of the Striker Replacement Strategy in the 1970s." '' Labor: Studies in the Working-Class History.'' 2:3 (2005). *"Bringing the State’s Workers In: Time to Rectify an Imbalanced U.S. Labor Historiography." ''Labor History.'' 47:1 (2006). *"Re-Framing the Crisis of U.S. Labor: Rights, Democracy, and Political Economy." ''Labour/Le Travail.'' 2007. *"Utraque Unum: Finding My Way as a Catholic and a Historian." In ''Faith and the Historian: Catholic Perspectives.'' Nick Salvatore, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. *"Managing Discontent: The Life and Career of Leamon Hood, Black Public Employee Union Activist." In ''The Black Worker: Race, Labor, and Civil Rights Since Emancipation.'' Eric Arnesen, ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. *


Notes


External links


Georgetown UniversityPhilip Taft Labor History Book Award


References


"Joseph McCartin," Georgetown University
*''Who's Who in America.'' 59th ed. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:McCartin, Joseph 1959 births Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Binghamton University alumni College of the Holy Cross alumni Commonweal (magazine) people Harvard Fellows Historians from Massachusetts Historians of the United States Labor historians Writers from Chelsea, Massachusetts