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Judith Susan Stein (April 17, 1940 – May 8, 2017) was an American historian, and a Distinguished Professor of History at the City College and
Graduate Center of the City University of New York The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...
. She worked on African American history, social movements, labor and business history, and political economy. Her major works are ''World of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class in Modern Society'', ''Running Steel, Running America: Race, Economy and the Decline of Liberalism'', and ''Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance''.


Life

Judith Susan Stein was born in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, New York, where her parents were a stockbroker and a schoolteacher, attended James Madison High School, and graduated with honors from
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...
in 1960. She received a Ph.D. in American Studies from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1968. Stein died from lung cancer in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, New York, on May 8, 2017, at the age of 77.


Works

Stein's first book ''The World of
Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) (commonly known a ...
'' addressed a major African American leader and movement, as well as his era, the early twentieth century up until the Great Depression. Harvard historian Nathan Huggins, writing in the ''American Historical Review'', said Stein, writing on a subject that is often "overly heated... has written the most balanced and the most historically textured study of Garvey and his times." Her second book, ''Running Steel, Running America'' placed race in the context of economy. ''Business History'' called it " marvelous and important book, an immaculately researched, powerfully written analysis." It "used the steel industry to chart the decline of liberalism" wrote the ''Law and History Review'' Her third book, ''Pivotal Decade'' addresses the decade of the 1970s. Stein asked "Why did the nation replace the assumptions that capital and labor should prosper together with an ethic claiming that the promotion of capital will eventually benefit labor." "This book should be required reading for any- one seeking to understand how the economic re-structuring of the 1970s led to our current age of inequality," wrote reviewer Shane Hamilton, from the Department of History at the University of Georgia. In the final year of her life, she began working on a book about the 1990s and the triumph of
neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...
. Entitled ''A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism'', the book was completed by
Nelson Lichtenstein Nelson Lichtenstein (born November 15, 1944) 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 ...
and published in 2023.


Academic activities

Stein was on the editorial board of the journal ''International Labor and Working Class History''. She was the recipient of fellowships from 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 ...
and the
American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...
, and was awarded a CUNY Distinguished Fellowship in 2013. She was elected to the
Society of American Historians The Society of American Historians, founded in 1939, encourages and honors literary distinction in the writing of history and biography about American topics. The approximately 300 members include professional historians, independent scholars, jou ...
and served as a Distinguished Lecturer for the
Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad incl ...
. She taught in Russia in 2006 as the Nikolay V. Sivachev Distinguished Chair in American History at
Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
.


Non-academic activities

Stein has written for the ''New York Times, Dissent, Village Voice, Nation, In These Times'', the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' and ''Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture''. She regularly blogged for ''
Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...
''. She regularly commented on contemporary events for news institutions, appearing on Bloomberg, BBC, and other television and radio programs.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Judith 1940 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians City College of New York faculty CUNY Graduate Center faculty Vassar College alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American women historians Academics from Brooklyn Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) James Madison High School (Brooklyn) alumni Historians from New York (state)