Shelton Stromquist (born 1943) is an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

of history at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

and a former president of the

Labor and Working-Class History Association The Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA) is a non-profit association of academics, educators, students, and labor movement and other activists that promotes research into and publication of materials on the history of the labor mov ...

. A social and labor historian, Stromquist's research examines an array of topics that include nineteenth century labor movements in the United States, labor union politics during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, and workers' struggles for

municipal socialism Municipal socialism is a type of socialism that uses local government to further socialist aims. It is a form of municipalism in which its explicitly socialist aims are clearly stated. In some contexts the word "municipalism" was tainted with t ...

across the world.

Education

Stromquist graduated from Yale University with a history major in 1966 and earned a PhD at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

in 1981, writing a dissertation under the supervision of David Montgomery.

Personal life

Stromquist was an active participant in the United States civil rights movement. Having first enrolled as an undergraduate at

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 ...

, Stromquist

dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

in 1963, traveling to India with the Experiment in International Living and studying and working in Germany from 1963 to 1964. He returned to work with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee as a volunteer, helping to organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and register

African-Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

to vote in

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat. The population was 21,573 at the 2020 census. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vicksburg ...

during Freedom Summer in 1964. He returned to Vicksburg during the summer of 1965 to continue that work and after graduating in 1966, joined the "Meredith March" in Mississippi from near Greenwood to the outskirts of Jackson. From 1966 to 1968 he served as a volunteer in Tanzania, East Africa with the American Friends Service Committee, working in Ujamaa (African socialist) villages. He married Ann Mullin, another AFSC volunteer, in Tanzania. They have three children, Christopher (1973), Matthew (1975) and Elizabeth (1979) (deceased). Stromquist was also active in the antiwar movement in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1968 to 1971, first as a staff person with AFSC and then as a community organizer and volunteer with Casa Maria and the Catholic Worker movement.

Bibliography

Solely authored books

* * * * *

Edited volumes

* with Jeffrey Cox, ''Contesting the Master Narrative: Essays in Social History'' (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1998). * with James R. Barrett, ''A David Montgomery Reader: Essays on Capitalism and Worker Resistance'' (Urbana: University of Illinois Press; The Working Class in American History, 2024)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stromquist, Shelton 1943 births University of Pittsburgh alumni University of Iowa faculty American historians Presidents of the Labor and Working-Class History Association Living people Labor historians