Historical and contemporary study of work, social movements, and social policy in the United States and globally.
About
Dorothy Sue Cobble
Dorothy Sue Cobble is an American historian, and a specialist in the historical and contemporary study of work, social movements, and social policy. A distinguished professor emerita of history and labor studies at Rutgers University, she is the author of multiple prize-winning books and articles.
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Her book, The Other Women’s Movement (2005) coined the term “labor feminism.”
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Her most recent book, For the Many: American Feminists and the Fight for Democratic Equality (Princeton University Press, 2021), reveals the grit, courage, and wisdom of the women who led the fight for economic justice and social democracy in the United States and around the world. Her next book, under contract with The New Press, draws on the far-seeing ideas of labor thinkers of the past to help us reimagine a fairer, more inclusive America.
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Her essays appear in The Washington Post, Dissent, Ms. Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, Journal of American History, and other outlets. Dr. Cobble’s commentary can be heard, most recently, on PBS American Experience’s “Fly With Me,” Minnesota Public Radio, National Public Radio, Jacobin Radio, Zagat Q&A, New Books Network, National History Center’s Washington History Seminar, Here’s Something Good I-Heart Radio, and the JFK Library Podcast.
New Book
For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality
A history of the twentieth-century feminists who fought for the rights of women, workers, and the poor, both in the United States and abroad. Available from Princeton University Press.
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"Only Dorothy Sue Cobble could have written For the Many with such keen sensitivity and historical insight. Covering a large swath of twentieth-century history, this masterful synthesis of existing literature and new research captures the resilience and persistence of the battle for social democratic values in ways that speak powerfully to us today"
—Susan Ware, author of Why They Marched