JERALD PODAIR
Lawrence University
711 E. Boldt Way SPC 19
Appleton, WI 54911-5699
Department of History
319 Main Hall
920-832-6677
podairj@lawrence.edu
2700 Beechwood Court
Appleton WI 54911
920-831-0350
CURRENT POSITION:
Professor of History and Robert S. French Professor of American Studies, Lawrence University.
EDUCATION:
Princeton University, Ph.D., 1997.
Dissertation: “ Like Strangers: Blacks, Whites, and New York City’s Ocean Hill –Brownsville Crisis, 1945-1980”
Study of race relations in post-World War II New York City, built around Ocean Hill-Brownsville school decentralization crisis of 1968.
Winner, 1998 Allan Nevins Prize, awarded by the Society of American Historians.
Dissertation Advisers: Alan Brinkley and James McPherson.
Princeton University, M.A., 1991.
Columbia University Law School, J.D., 1977.
New York University, B.A., magna cum laude, 1974.
PRIOR EMPLOYMENT:
Chair, Department of History, Lawrence University, 2008-2010.
Associate Professor of History, Lawrence University, 2003-2009.
Assistant Professor of History, Lawrence University, 1998-2003.
Lecturer, Princeton University Department of History, 1997-1998.
Assistant in Instruction, Princeton University Department of History, 1994-1997.
Practicing Attorney, New York, NY, 1977-1988.
PUBLICATIONS:
Books
Land, Power, and the Fate of Modern Los Angeles: Building Dodger Stadium (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, forthcoming).
American Conversations: From the Centennial to the Millennium, by Jerald Podair and
Andrew E. Kersten (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012).
The Struggle for Equality: Essays on Sectional Conflict, the Civil War, and the
Long Reconstruction, edited by Jerald Podair, Vernon Burton and Jennifer Weber (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2011).
Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
The Strike That Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville
Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).
Finalist, 2003 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award, awarded by the
Organization of American Historians for the best book on any aspect of the struggle for civil rights in the United States.
Honorable Mention, 2003 Urban History Association Book Award, for best book in North American urban history.
Articles and Reviews
Review, The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict: Intellectual Struggles Between Blacks and
Jews at Mid-Century, by Glen Anthony Harris, American Historical Review, 118
(October 2013): 1209-10.
“Albert Shanker” and “New York Teachers Strike (1968)” in Melvyn Dubofsky, ed.,
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Review, “Progressive Appleton: Through the Lens of W.D. Schlafer,” Voyageur, 30
(Summer/Fall 2013): 39-43.
Review, Zaprudered: The Kennedy Assassination Film in Visual Culture, by Oyvind
Vagnes, Film & History, 42 (Fall 2012): 72-73.
Review, Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights, and the New York City
Teachers Union, by Clarence Taylor, American Communist History, 11
(December 2012): 308-10.
“An Awful Choice: Bayard Rustin and New York City’s Civil Rights Wars, 1968,” in
Jerald Podair, Vernon Burton, and Jennifer Weber, eds., The Struggle for Equality: Essays on Sectional Conflict, the Civil War, and the Long Reconstruction (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2011).
“’One City, One Standard’: The Struggle for Equality in Rudolph Giuliani’s New York,”
in Clarence Taylor, ed., Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the
Giuliani Era (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011).
“Walter O’Malley,” in Steven Riess, ed., Sports in America: From Colonial Times to the
Twenty-First Century (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2011), 689-90.
Review, The American Worker on Film: A Critical History, 1909-1999, by Doyle
Greene, Film & History, 41 (Spring 2011): 120-22.
Review, Power, Protest and the Public Schools: Jewish and African American Struggles
in New York City, by Melissa F. Weiner, History of Education Quarterly,
51 (November 2011): 598-600.
“Introduction: A Book to Remember,” A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord (Lodi, NJ:
Everbind Anthologies, 2010).
Review, The New Yorker Theatre and Other Scenes from a Life at the Movies, by Toby
Talbot, Film & History, 40 (Fall 2010): 122-23.
“You Decide: View Teachers Unions as Enemy or Work with them to Achieve Mutual
Goals,” New York Daily News, October 15, 2010.
Review, Inventing the American Way: The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to
the Civil Rights Revolution, by Wendy Wall, American Studies, 50
(Spring/Summer 2010): 217.
Review, Remembering Scottsboro: The Legacy of an Infamous Trial, by James A. Miller
American Communist History, 9 (April 2010): 97-99.
Review, “Black Thursday Remembered: Race, Politics, and Campus Unrest in Northeast
Wisconsin During the Late 1960s,” Journal of American History, 96 (June 2009): 166-69.
Review, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, by Wayne Barrett
and Dan Collins, The Historian, 70 (Winter 2008): 769-70.
Review, For All White-Collar Workers: The Possibilities of Radicalism in New York
City’s Department Store Unions, 1934-1953, by Daniel J. Opler, American
Historical Review, 113 (December 2008): 1569.
Review, The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity, by Eric L.
Goldstein, Labor History, 49 (February 2008): 128-29.
Review, Justice, Justice: School Politics and the Eclipse of Liberalism, by Daniel H.
Perlstein, Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 31 (July 2007): 139-40.
Review, Citizen Teacher: The Life and Leadership of Margaret Haley, by Kate
Rousmaniere, and Learning to Forget: Schooling and Family Life in New Haven’s
Working Class, 1870-1940, by Stephen Lassonde, Labor: Studies in Working-
Class History of the Americas, 4 (Spring 2007): 115-18.
“Edward Daniels,” in Sara B. Bearss, ed., Dictionary of Virginia Biography (Richmond:
The Library of Virginia, 2006).
“Ocean Hill-Brownsville Strike (1968),” in Eric Arnesen, ed., Encyclopedia of U.S.
Labor and Working-Class History (New York and London: Routledge, 2007).
“Neighborhood Power,” Journal of Urban History, 31 (July 2005): 746-52.
Review, The African-American Urban Experience: Perspectives from the Colonial Period
to the Present, Joe W. Trotter, Earl Lewis, and Tera W. Hunter, eds., Urban
Studies, 42 (July 2005): 3-5.
“Lights Out,” Reviews in American History, 32 (June 2004): 267-73.
“The Strikes That Changed New York: Race, Culture, and Ocean Hill-Brownsville, 1960-
1975,” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 26 (January 2002):
7-23.
Review, Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto, by
Wendell Pritchett, Urban Studies, 40 (January 2003): 183-85.
Review, Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto, by
Wendell Pritchett, American Studies, 43 (Fall 2002): 139.
“Ocean Hill-Brownsville” and ”Albert Shanker,” in Peter Eisenstadt, ed., The
Encyclopedia of New York State (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press,
2005).
Review, Black Newspapers & America’s War for Democracy, 1914-1920, by William G.
Jordan, The Historian, 65 (March 2003): 724-25.
“Views From the 110th Floor,” Review, Twin Towers: The Life of
New York City’s World Trade Center, by Angus Kress Gillespie, and Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York’s World Trade Center, by Eric Darton, H-Urban, H-Net Reviews, August 2000.
URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews
“New York,” in Waldo E. Martin, Jr., and Patricia Sullivan, eds., Civil Rights in the
United States (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2000).
“’White’ Values, ‘Black’ Values: The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Controversy and New
York City Culture, 1965-1975,” Radical History Review, 59 (Spring
1994): 36-59.
“The Failure to ‘See’: Jews, Blacks, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Controversy”
(Temple University Center for American Jewish History, 1992).
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES (partial list):
“Bringing Out the Best in Everyone: The Senior Research Seminar for History Majors at
Lawrence University” (presented at National Conference on Undergraduate Research, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, April 12, 2013).
“Lincoln, the Constitution, and the Civil War” (invited panel presentation, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, January 10, 2013).
“The Only Life: Liberal Arts and the Life of the Mind at Lawrence University” (Honors Convocation, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, May 31, 2012).
“An American Historian’s London” (invited lecture, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, February 15, 2012).
“The King We Don’t Know” (invited lecture, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, January 16, 2012).
“The Strike That Changed New York: Ocean Hill-Brownsville, the Politics of Education
and Race Relations in New York City” (panel presentation at Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY, August 19, 2010).
“’One City, One Standard’: The Struggle for Equality in Rudolph Giuliani’s New York” (presented at Conference of The Historical Society, George Washington University, Washington, DC, June 4, 2010).
“How the Milwaukee Braves Changed American History” (invited lecture, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, April 9, 2010).
“Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer” (invited lecture, National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, WI, February 27, 2010).
“Lincoln’s Road to the Emancipation Proclamation: Understanding Freedom’s Ambiguities” (presented to Wisconsin Academy for the Study of American History, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, July 23, 2009).
“Why Biography Matters: Bayard Rustin and the Limits of the American Radical Dream” (Annual Malcolm Lester Lecture in History, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, September 24, 2008).
“’Scab’ or ‘Racist’?: Public School Teachers and the Dilemmas of Liberalism in New York City During the 1960s” (presented at Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, New York, NY, March 28, 2008).
“New York, Los Angeles, and the Rise of Walter O’Malley” (invited lecture, SABR, Milwaukee, WI, August 19, 2006).
“Freedom’s Voices: Teaching the History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement” (presented to Teachers Academy for the Study of American History, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, July 18, 2006).
“Like Strangers: Blacks, Jews, and New York City’s Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis”
(invited lecture, American Jerusalem Academy for Contemporary Jewish Studies, Highland Park, NJ, January 22, 2006).
“Space Wars: Urban Space and the Resegregation of the American City” (Comment, “Changing Planning Methods, Breaking Barriers to Development,” National Conference on Planning History, Coral Gables, FL, October 21, 2005).
“American Metaphor: Race and Baseball in the United States” (Comment, “Race and Baseball,” presented at Northern Great Plains History Conference, Eau Claire, WI, September 29, 2005).
“An Awful Choice: Bayard Rustin and New York City’s Civil Rights Wars, 1968” (presented at “A New Nation,” Princeton University, Department of History, Princeton, NJ, April 9, 2005).
“Back Door to Freedom: The Paradoxes of the Emancipation Proclamation” (presented in conjunction with “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation,” Lawrence University, Appleton, WI, February 3, 2004).
“New Currencies: Racial Identity and the Redefinition of the New York City Public
Education Market, 1960-1980” (presented at “Selling Race: The Limits and Liberties of
Markets,” University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Modern & Contemporary
Studies, Los Angeles, CA, October 25, 2002).
“Free Labor and Its Paradoxes: Edward Daniels and the Gunston Hall Experiment”
(presented at the Southern Labor Studies Conference, Miami, FL, April 28, 2002).
“The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis of 1968: New York’s Antigone” (presented at the
Conference on New York City History, City University of New York, New York, NY,
October 6, 2001).
“’Making Our Own Rules For Our Own Schools’: Racial Identity and the Battle For New
York City’s Education Market, 1960-1980” (presented at Annual Meeting of the
Organization of American Historians, Los Angeles, CA, April 27, 2001).
“The Strike That Changed New York: Race, Culture, and Ocean Hill-Brownsville, 1960-
1975” (presented at the Conference on New York State History, Fordham University,
Bronx, NY, June 17, 2000).
“Mugged Liberals: Jews, Blacks, and New York City’s Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis”
(presented at “The History of American Jewish Political Conservatism,” Washington,
DC, April 16, 1999).
“Redefining a City: Jews, Catholics, African-Americans, and School Decentralization in
New York, 1960-1975” (presented at Annual Meeting of the Organization of American
Historians, San Francisco, CA, April 19, 1996).
“’Community’ and Its Perils: Local School Control and Civil Rights in New York City,
1960-1980” (presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, New York, NY, April 12, 1996).
“Crucible at Ocean Hill-Brownsville: New York City Teachers and School
Decentralization, 1965-1975” (presented at “Rebellion, Revolution, and Reform: Teacher
Unionism in New York, 1900-1995,” sponsored by the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
of New York University and the New York Labor History Association, New York, NY
May 20, 1995).
“What Is ‘American’?: The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Controversy and the Struggle for
‘American’ Culture” (presented at Annual Meeting of the Organization of American
Historians, Anaheim, CA, April 16, 1993).
“’We Speak Different Languages’: The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Controversy and the
Fall of New York City’s Liberal Consensus” (presented at Annual Meeting of the
American Historical Association, Washington, DC, December 30, 1992).
“The Ocean Hill-Brownsville Controversy: Labor, Liberalism, and the Civil Rights
Revolution” (presented at the North American Labor History Conference, Wayne State
University, Detroit, MI, October 16, 1992).
“Race, Class, and the ‘Progressive’ Union in the 1960’s: The United Federation of Teachers and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Controversy” (presented at “Reworking American Labor History: Race, Gender, and Class,” sponsored by the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, April 10, 1992).
“The Silent Majority Speaks: Dragnet 1968 and Television’s Cultural Backlash”
(presented at Annual Conference of the North East Popular Culture Association,
St. Michael’s College, Colchester, VT, October 12, 1991).
AWARDS AND HONORS:
Allan Nevins Prize, awarded by Society of American Historians, 1998.
New York State Historical Association Manuscript Prize, Honorable Mention, 1998.
Fellow, New York Academy of History, 2009-Present.
Member, Wisconsin Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, 2008-2009.
Lawrence University Award for Excellence in Scholarship, 2010.
Lawrence University Faculty Convocation Award, 2011-12
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:
Lawrence University London Centre Visiting Professor, 2011.
Lawrence University Faculty Research Grant, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005.
Mellon Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Princeton University, 1993-1994.
Temple University Center for American Jewish History Research Fellowship, 1991.
Mellon Foundation/Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni Fellowship, 1991.
City University of New York Graduate Center, Center for the Study of Philanthropy,
Research Fellowship, 1991.
Philip A. Rollins Prize, Princeton University Department of History, 1990-1993.
COURSES TAUGHT:
Republic to Nation: The United States, 1789-1896
Nation in a Modern World: The United States, 1896-Present
The American Civil War
Race Relations in America, 1865-Present
The 1920s, the Great Depression, and the New Deal
Reconsidering the 1960s
American Experiences: An Introduction to American Studies
The American Civil War: A Transatlantic Perspective
The Transatlantic Sixties: The United States and Great Britain
The JFK Assassination in American Politics, Culture, and Memory
Lincoln: Revolutionary American
The Practice of History (senior-level research seminar)
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES:
Panelist, Freshman Studies Discussion of Race Matters, January 18, 2013.
“Joe McCarthy: Local Antihero” (Lawrence University Summer Seminar, July 12, 2012).
Moderator, “Black America: A Prescription for the Future” (Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, New York, NY, February 26, 2012).
Recipient, Bob Wurdinger Athletic Service Award, Lawrence University, 2012.
Review Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Research
Programs, Scholarly Editions Grants, 2009.
Historical Consultant, The History Museum at the Castle, Appleton, WI (formerly
Outagamie County Historical Society), “Sports and Spirit” (Museum exhibit, opened May 2009).
Historical Consultant, National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, WI, “The Pullman Porters: From Service to Civil Rights” (Museum exhibit, opened July 2008).
Member, Working Group for Tutorial Education Assessment, co-sponsored by Lawrence
University, Williams College, and the College of Wooster, 2008-2010.
Lawrence University Junior Faculty Mentor, 2003-05, 2008-10.
Historical Consultant, Outagamie Historical Society, Appleton, WI, “The Times They
Are A-Changin’” (Museum exhibit on 1960s, opened June 2006).
Freshman Studies Lecturer, Lawrence University, 2005-07 (“The King We Don’t Know:
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech in American History and
Memory”).
Organizer, “New Approaches to the Civil War: An Interdisciplinary Symposium,”
Lawrence University, April 16, 2005.
Organizer, Colloquium on “Beyond the Battlefield: Teaching the Civil War Across the
Disciplines,” sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Lawrence
University, April 15, 2005.
Project Evaluator, Northeast Wisconsin Teaching American History Program, University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay (National Endowment for the Humanities), 2003-2005.
President, American Association of University Professors, Lawrence University chapter,
2005-06.
President, Gamma-Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Lawrence University, 2003-04,
2005.
Member, Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Review Committee for Newberry
Library Seminar in the Humanities, 2005-06.
Lecturer, Teachers Academy for the Study of American History, University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh (National Endowment for the Humanities), 2004, 2006 (“Freedom’s Voices: Teaching the History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement”).
Historical Consultant, Civil Rights Chronicle: The African-American Struggle for
Freedom (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 2003).
Historical Consultant, Outagamie Historical Society, Appleton, WI, “Joseph McCarthy:A Modern Tragedy” (Museum exhibit, opened January 2002).
Historical Consultant, “Brownsville Black and White” (Documentary film, released
November 2000).
Commenter, “Brownsville Black and White,” San Diego (February 2002) and Brooklyn
(April 2002) Jewish Film Festivals.
Historical Consultant, “New York in Black and White: The Sixties, Civil Rights, and the
Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis” (Radio documentary, WNYC-New York,
broadcast January 2000).
Review Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities, Faculty Research
Awards for Historically Black, Hispanic-Serving, and Tribal Colleges and Universities, 2001-2002.
Historical Consultant, “America’s Story from America’s Library” (American history
website produced by Library of Congress, 2000).
Pre-Law Adviser, Lawrence University, 1999-2003.
Faculty Adviser, Lawrence University Multicultural Affairs Committee, 1998-Present.
Instructor, Bjorklunden Seminars, Lawrence University, 2000-2003, 2007
(“The Sixties: Great Books”; “The Sixties: Great Films”; “The American Civil War: What Might Have Been”; “Lincoln: Man, Myth, Icon”; “The Best and Worst of America’s Presidents”; “The Presidential Elections That Changed America”).
Instructor, Lawrence University Summer Institute for Secondary School Teachers of
Advanced Placement United States History Courses, 1999-2000.
Head of Assistants in Instruction, Princeton University Department of History, 1997-
1998.
Instructor, Princeton University Summer Scholars Institute for Incoming Students, 1997.
PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES:
Phi Beta Kappa
New York Academy of History
American Historical Association
Organization of American Historians
The Historical Society
American Studies Association
Urban History Association
REFERENCES:
James M. McPherson, Department of History, Princeton University (Emeritus).
Alan Brinkley, Department of History, Columbia University.
Gary Gerstle, Department of History, Vanderbilt University.