Joseph Bruce Nelson (1940-2022) was a professor emeritus of history at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
and noted
labor historian and scholar of the history of the concepts of race and class in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and among Western European immigrants to the U.S.
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Background
Joseph Bruce Nelson was born on August 9, 1940, in
Flushing, Queens, New York City, and raised in Manahasset Bay,
Long Island.
[
] He graduated from The Choate School
Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate; ) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private hi ...
(now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...
and from Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1962 with a degree in religion.[
After graduation, Nelson moved to California, attended the San Francisco Theological Seminary,][ and received a ]master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an 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 practice. in history from the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.[ In 1982, he received a PhD in History from Berkeley.][
]
Career
Labor
Between his MA and PhD, Nelson left academia for nine years to work as an auto worker, machine operator, warehouseman, and longshoreman.[
]
Activism
Nelson participated in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. In 1965, he went to jail in Selma, Alabama, just prior to the Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
.[
]
Academia
Nelson taught at the University of California Davis, Middlebury College, and Dartmouth (1985-2009), where he became a full professor and retired professor emeritus after a quarter century there.[ Nelson continued to lecture to Dartmouth students, alumni, and interns.][ Students continue to cite him as influential.
]
Personal life and death
In 1962, Nelson married Donna Robinson; they had two children.[
Nelson was a member of the ]United Association for Labor Education
United Association for Labor Education (UALE) is an international association for post-secondary, community, union and associated labor educators based in Chicago, Illinois.
UALE was founded on April 15, 2000, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the ...
and the Organization of American Historians, and the editorial board of ''Labor History
Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other fac ...
''.[
Nelson played ]lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...
in high school and college and founded the Oakland Youth Lacrosse team in Oakland, California.[
Bruce Nelson died age 81 on June 24, 2022, in ]White River Junction
White River Junction is an unincorporated village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Hartford in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,528 at the 2020 census, up from 2,286 in 2010, making it the largest co ...
, Vermont.[
]
Research
Nelson focused on the formation of the concepts of class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
, race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
and nationhood
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
in the United States and Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
. Most of his published research examined these issues in the context of the American labor movement
The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party.
T ...
, particularly dock and steel workers' unions. Most recently, Nelson's work examined themes of race and class in the Irish American experience. His published works take a "new labor history
New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history.
Before the 1960s, most labor historians around the world focused ...
" perspective.
Nelson's 1988 book, ''Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s'', was widely praised as a breakthrough in the labor history of the influential West Coast dock workers' unions. The work, based on Nelson's doctoral dissertation, was praised as the "best analysis" of the 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike. It was cited as "an excellent example of the kind of research that is both needed and possible..." and for documenting "clearly and carefully the use of anti-communism as a subterfuge for anti-unionism." The book received the Frederick Jackson Turner
Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an American historian during the early 20th century, based at the University of Wisconsin until 1910, and then Harvard University. He was known primarily for his frontier thes ...
Award from the Organization of American Historians (awarded to an author publishing his or her first book).
Nelson's second major work, ''Divided We Stand'', expanded Nelson's interest in the formation of various concepts of "working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...
." The book focused again on longshoremen but expanded its scope to include workers in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
as well as steelworkers in the Midwest. The book was called "a landmark study of race and trade unionism": Bruce Nelson, in line with David Roediger and others, argues that "the history of the white working class, in its majority, was one of self-definition in opposition to an often demonized racial Other icand intense resistance to the quest of African Americans for full citizenship". What makes Divided We Stand unique is that, unlike heavily cultural whiteness studies
Whiteness studies is the study of the structures that produce white privilege, the examination of what whiteness is when analyzed as a race, a culture, and a source of systemic racism, and the exploration of other social phenomena generated by the ...
that have used scant literary evidence to support sweeping theoretical claims, Nelson digs deeply into archival sources and oral interviews to describe real workers and their shop-floor experience in compelling detail.
In more recent years, Nelson turned his attention away from labor unions and toward Irish Americans as a means of examining shifting concepts of race and class.
Awards and recognition
Awards:
* 1988: Distinguished Teaching Award from Dartmouth College[
* 1989: Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians for ''Workers on the Waterfront''
* 2009: Robert A. Fish 1918 Memorial Prize 2009 from Dartmouth College][
* (Undated): Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship][
Nelson received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2002),][
] Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
, 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 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...
, as well as the Dartmouth Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship for excellence in scholarship and teaching.
Works
Aside from collaborative works, Nelson wrote himself:
Books:
*''Irish Nationalists and the Making of the Irish Race'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012)
*''Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
*''Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen and Unionism in the 1930s'' (Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1990)
Book chapters:
*"'CIO Meant One Thing for the Whites and Another Thing for Us': Steelworkers and Civil Rights, 1936-1974." In ''Southern Labor in Transition, 1940-1995.'' Robert H. Zieger, ed. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1997.
*"Class and Race in the Crescent City: The ILWU, from San Francisco to New Orleans." In ''The CIO's Left-Led Unions.'' Steven Rosswurm, ed. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
*"The 'Lords of the Docks' Reconsidered: Race Relations among West Coast Longshoremen, 1933-61." In ''Waterfront Workers: New Perspectives on Race and Class.'' Calvin Winslow, ed. Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Articles:
*"Class, Race and Democracy in the CIO: The 'New' Labor History Meets the 'Wages of Whiteness'." ''International Review of Social History.'' 41 (1996).
*"Irish Americans, Irish Nationalism, and the 'Social' Question, 1916-1923." ''boundary 2.'' 31:1 (Spring 2004).
*"Organized Labor and the Struggle for Black Equality in Mobile during World War II." ''Journal of American History.'' 80:3 (December 1993).
*"The Triumph and 'Tragedy' of Walter Reuther." ''Reviews in American History.'' 24:3 (September 1996).
*"The Uneven Development of Class and Consciousness." ''Labor History.'' 32:4 (Fall 1991).
*"Working Class Agency and Racial Inequality." ''International Review of Social History.'' 41 (1996).
*"Zieger's CIO: In Defense of Labor Liberalism." ''Labor History.'' 37:2 (Spring 1996).
References
External links
Waterfront Workers History Project
Bruce Nelson talks about Harry Bridges and the ILWU (1999)
J. Bruce Nelson @ Dartmouth College
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070102172421/http://www.oah.org/activities/awards/turner/index.html Frederick Jackson Turner Award
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Bruce
1940 births
2022 deaths
People from Long Island
Choate Rosemary Hall alumni
Princeton University alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Historians of the United States
Labor historians
Dartmouth College faculty
American male non-fiction writers