Environmental historians have traditionally focused their studies on the wilderness, the countryside, and, more recently, the city. But what about the industrial workplace? What on earth has nature had to do with labor? What can an ecologically and socially conscious approach to the past reveal about one of the most violent strikes in United States history? Dr. Thomas Andrews will discuss the brutal southern Colorado coalfield war of 1913-1914 in which at least 80 people lost their lives and, in the process, highlight the interconnections between work and the environment.
Thomas Andrews is Assistant Professor, History, California State University at Northridge, and author of the forthcoming book Power, Toil, and Trouble: The Ludlow Massacre, the Colorado Coalfield Rebellion of 1914, and the Nature of Industrial Struggle, Harvard University Press.