Jeremy
Brecher is a historian and the author of ten books on labor and social
movements, including Strike!, Brass Valley, History from Below, Building
Bridges, Global Visions, Global Village or Global Pillage,
and Globalization from Below.
Brecher
serves as Humanities Scholar-in-Residence at Connecticut Public Television and
Radio, a position supported by the Connecticut Humanities Council. He has written the scripts for the
documentaries The Roots of Roe, Schools in Black and White, Rust Valley, The Amistad Revolt, Electronic
Road Film, Brass City Music, and Dance
on the Wind, the last two of which he co-produced. He won two Emmy Awards and the Edgar Dale
Screenwriting Award for The Roots of Roe.
Brecher
is writer and host of Connecticut Public Radio’s Remembering Connecticut, which the Oral History Review called “One of the most ambitious, and
certainly the longest-running, radio history series in the United States. . .
Historically grounded to a degree rare in programming of this sort. . .
Accessible, engaging, and far ranging.”
Brecher’s
first book, Strike!, was described by
the Washington Post as “Spendid . . .
Clearly the best single-volume summary yet published of American general
strikes” and was listed as a “Noteworthy Title” by The New York Times Book Review.
Brass Valley was described as “The most
comprehensive social history of a city or region in 20th century American yet
to appear” and “a great achievement in using oral history to explore work and
community life in 20th-century America” by Gary Gerstle in Technology and Culture. It
was selected for inclusion in the “UAW’s Labor Bookshelf.”
The Nation called Building Bridges “A splendid collection of essays . . . one of the best practical how-to organizing
manuals around . . . massively
inspiring.”
Studs
Terkel wrote of History from Below,
“Brecher’s work is astonishing and refreshing and, God knows, necessary. In this work lies the way to help cure our
national amnesia.”
David
Montgomery, President of the American Historical Association, wrote in The Nation of Global Village or Global Pillage: “Penetrating analysis . . . crisp
and simple language . . . as penetrating as it is succinct . . . an effective
antidote to the mood of resignation before the omnipotence of transnational
business institutions which pervades the political discourse of our times . . .
timely and important.”
Frances
Fox Piven called Globalization from Below “lean, thoughtful, and
incisive . . . A must-read.”
Brecher
holds a Ph. d from the Union Graduate School.
He has served as Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Otago
in New Zealand. He received the Wilber
Cross Award of the Connecticut Humanities Council as Humanities Scholar of the
Year.