The publication of Julia L. Mickenberg’s book, Learning from the Left: Children’s Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2005), will be celebrated at New York University’s Tamiment Library, 10th floor of the NYU Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, on Monday, November 7, at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public; photo ID should be presented at the door. For further information, the public may call 212.998.2639.
Mickenberg, assistant professor of American studies at the University of Texas at Austin, conducted much of her research on Learning from the Left at NYU’s Tamiment Library. The book explores how, at the height of the Cold War, dozens of radical and progressive writers, illustrators, editors, librarians, booksellers, and teachers cooperated to create and disseminate children’s books that challenged the status quo. This book offers a new perspective on the history of children’s books in the light of the history of the Left, and on the links between the Old Left of the 1930s and the New Left of the 1960s.
The Tamiment Library/Wagner Labor Archives at NYU is a unique center for scholarly research on the history and culture of American activism and labor. Tamiment’s many collections document the history of anarchist, communist, labor, radical, feminist, and socialist movements in the U.S. from the Civil War to the present.