Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2010
Frank Tannenbaum (1893–1969) was a man of many parts. He was brought up by immigrant parents on a New England farm, which may explain his sympathy for small farmers. At the same time, however, he embraced the cause of urban workers and became a Wobbly and an anarcho-syndicalist theorist. In fact, Tannenbaum first made a name for himself as an advocate for the unemployed, the homeless, and the imprisoned—the latter after being jailed for his role organizing those at the bottom of United States urban society. Yet he also studied with John Dewey at Columbia University and got a doctorate at the Brookings Institution with a thesis on the Mexican agrarian reform, inaugurating three decades of engagement with the Mexican Revolution. During this time Tannenbaum became the friend and adviser of ministers and presidents.
1. Like Frank Tannenbaum, Mike Merrill has been an activist scholar who not only has written highly regarded publications on US economic history and labor studies, but has also worked closely with the US labor movement in several different capacities.
2. Knight, Alan, The Mexican Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar.
3. See de la Fuente, Alejandro, A Nation for All: Race, Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba (Envisioning Cuba) (Chapel Hill, 2000)Google Scholar.
4. Williams, Eric, Capitalism and Slavery (Chapel Hill, 1944)Google Scholar.
5. Elliott, John, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830 (New Haven, 2006)Google Scholar.