James R. Barrett is a professor emeritus of history and African American studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he won several teaching awards and was a University Scholar and chair of the history department. He grew up on the West Side of Chicago and has worked often with teachers, labor unions, and community groups. Barrett's research is primarily in the areas of labor history, urban history, race and ethnicity, and the history of social movements. His major works include History from the Bottom Up and the Inside Out: Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in Working-Class History (2017), The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multi-Ethnic City (2012), Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago’s Packing House Workers (1987), William Z. Foster and Tragedy of American Radicalism (1999), and a critical edition of Upton Sinclair’s classic novel The Jungle (1907; 1988). He is currently at work with Jenny Barrett on "Chicago: A Peoples' History."
FORTHCOMING IN 2023: Contending with Capitalism: A David Montgomery Reader (University of Illinois Press)
This is an inter-ethnic approach to understanding the formation of urban society and culture in the early twentieth century. It looks at relations between the Irish and African Americans, Jews and others to explain the evolution of urban culture from music hall and vaudeville, through Tin Pan Alley to the urban realism of the Great Depression and beyond.
