David Montgomery was a Farnam Professor of History at 
Yale University died from brain hemorrhage he was 84..
[1] Montgomery was considered one of the foremost academics specializing in United States 
labor history and wrote extensively on the subject. Along with 
David Brody and 
Herbert Gutman, he is credited with founding the field of "
new labor history" in the U.S.
[2]
 (December 1, 1927 – December 2, 2011) 
 Biography
 Early years
Following a stint in the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, from which he was honorably discharged as a 
Staff Sergeant, Montgomery entered undergraduate school at 
Swarthmore College. He graduated in 1950 with Highest Honors and a 
Bachelor of Arts degree in 
political science.
Over the next 10 years, Montgomery worked as a 
machinist—first in New York City and later in 
Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was as a machinist that Montgomery became involved in 
union activity as an active member of the 
United Electrical Workers, the 
International Association of Machinists, and the 
Teamsters. He held numerous positions, including 
shop steward, legislative committee member, and local executive board member.
It was also at this time, in 1951 or 1952, that Montgomery became a member of the 
Communist Party, USA.
 The party's positions on international issues, racial justice and 
social unionism led Montgomery to join. He was active with the party in 
New York City and briefly in St. Paul. He left the party around 1957. 
Montgomery's experience in the Communist Party clearly influenced his 
research interest in labor radicalism, among other issues, throughout 
his scholarly career.
[3] It was while Montgomery was a labor organizer among machinists in 
St. Paul, Minnesota that he may have been repeatedly targeted by the FBI.
[4]
 Academic career
In 1959, Montgomery entered 
graduate school at the 
University of Minnesota, from which he received his 
Ph.D. in 1962. The next year he was hired as an 
assistant professor of history at the 
University of Pittsburgh, where he remained for the next 14 years. At the University of Pittsburgh, Montgomery wrote his first book, 
Beyond Equality: Labor and the Radical Republicans, 1862-1872,
 which was published in 1967. On sabbatical from that institution, 
Montgomery spent two years working in England with historian 
E. P. Thompson to establish the 
Centre for the Study of Social History at the 
University of Warwick. He subsequently held visiting teacher positions at 
Oxford University and a number of other universities in Brazil, Canada, and the Netherlands.
On his return to the United States, Montgomery returned to the 
University of Pittsburgh, becoming chair of the department. He was 
recruited by several other institutions, eventually accepting a position
 at Yale. Montgomery taught courses about the history of working people 
in the United States, 
Civil War and 
Reconstruction, and immigration. In 1988, his book 
The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925, was published to wide acclaim. 
Noam Chomsky, the renowned and controversial professor of 
linguistics at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and political activist, called the book one of the definitive works on the American labor struggle. The book was a 
Pulitzer Prize finalist nominee.
Following the example of British historian 
E. P. Thompson,
 Montgomery encouraged a generation of labor historians to re-examine 
the core subject matter of labor history, thus defining the new labor 
history, which examines 
working-class culture, rather than simply their organizations. He was also influential through his editorship of the journal 
International Labor and Working-Class History.
In 2001, Montgomery published a book in collaboration with Professor 
Horace Huntley of the 
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The book, 
Black Workers' Struggle for Equality in Birmingham, uses 
oral histories to interpret and explore the involvement of 
African American workers in various unions and the organized labor movement for 
civil rights.
During the 1990s, Montgomery wrote and spoke about 
academic freedom,
 calling for wider availability of information for research and in favor
 of a larger scope of academic freedom. He claimed that over the 
presidential administrations of 
George W. Bush and 
Bill Clinton,
 access to government documents had been sharply reduced and that this 
has resulted in less academic freedom. Additionally, Montgomery 
criticized the USA's 
Patriot Act and its provisions for 
surveillance of academics and librarians, arguing they impede academic freedom.
[5]
He also served as president of the 
Organization of American Historians (OAH) from 1999 to 2000.
[6]
 Death and legacy
David Montgomery died on December 2, 2011. He is survived by his 
wife, Martel, and two sons, New York attorney Claude Montgomery and 
economist 
Edward B. Montgomery. An obituary for Montgomery appeared Monday, December 5, 2011 in the 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
[7]
In the spring of 2012 the Executive Board of the Organization of 
American Historians approved a new book award in the field of Labor and 
Working Class History to be named after David Montgomery.
[8] Fundraising was begun to build a $50,000 
endowment for the prize, after which time the David Montgomery award is to be presented annually by the OAH in conjunction with the 
Labor and Working Class History Association.
[8]
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