Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America by Joe Trotter

Please join us for a History Book Club virtual event from the University of Minnesota’s Department of History, the Ramsey County Historical Society, and the Labor and Working History Association.

This event is featuring a discussion of Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America by Joe Trotter. 

Joe Trotter (PhD ‘80), Giant Eagle Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, will discuss his book with moderator William Jones, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

Do I need to read the book to attend this gathering?

You do not! The History Book Club gatherings are designed to be enjoyed by any history-lover, whether or not you’ve read the featured book.

About the book

Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America, University of California Press (January 2019)

From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the black working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.”

In his engrossing new history, Workers on Arrival, Joe William Trotter, Jr. refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class’s vast contributions to the making of America. Covering the last four hundred years since Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, Trotter traces black workers’ complicated journey from the transatlantic slave trade through the American Century to the demise of the industrial order in the 21st century. At the center of this compelling, fast-paced narrative are the actual experiences of these African American men and women. A dynamic and vital history of remarkable contributions despite repeated setbacks, Workers on Arrival expands our understanding of America’s economic and industrial growth, its cities, ideas, and institutions, and the real challenges confronting black urban communities today.

We recommend using IndieBound to purchase a copy (just released in paperback!) at an independent bookstore near you.

 About the author

Joe William Trotter, Jr. is the Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice and past History Department Chair at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also the Director and Founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy, President Elect of the Urban History Association and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Trotter received his BA degree from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. He is currently working on a study of African American urban life since the Atlantic slave trade. Read full bio here

About the moderator

William P. Jones is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota and president of the Labor and Working Class History Association. He currently serves as the director of graduate studies for the History Department. An expert on race and labor in the twentieth-century United States, he is author of two award-winning books, The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South (2005) and The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights (2013). Jones has been a guest on the PBS Newshour, NPR’s “The Takeaway,” and Democracy Now! He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, and other publications. He is currently writing a book on public employees and the transformation of the U.S. economy after World War II. Before coming to the University of Minnesota in 2016, Dr. Jones taught at the University of Wisconsin and Rutgers University.