Victor Silverman
Pomona College, History, Faculty Member
- Film Studies, Diplomatic History, Addiction, Digital Media, International organizations, Documentary (Film Studies), and 26 moreContemporary History, Criminal Justice History, Digital Journalism, Labour history, International History, Drugs and drug culture, American History, Transatlantic relations, Trade unionism, American Foreign Policy, Diplomatic Studies, United Nations, American Culture, Unesco, American Studies, History, Drugs And Addiction, American Politics, US-Mexico Borderlands, California History, US-Latin American Relations, California (American History), California, Drug Addiction, Drugs And Alcohol, and U.S. Foreign Policyedit
- Victor Silverman Victor Silverman’s career has spanned history, politics, theater, writing, and film. He is Profes... moreVictor Silverman
Victor Silverman’s career has spanned history, politics, theater, writing, and film.
He is Professor and Chair of the History Department at Pomona College, where he has also chaired the program in American Studies. His current film, “Getting High,” is a provocative, feature-length documentary about his family’s collision with drugs and alcohol set against a backdrop of our society’s bitter conflicts about the “War on Drugs.” “Getting High” is now in development. Professor Silverman co-directed, co-produced, and co-wrote the Emmy-winning film “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria,” which aired on nationally on PBS in 2006. In addition to his filmmaking, he has been a producer and consultant developing visual litigation strategies and producing legal graphics and animations in high stakes legal battles.
Often quoted in the press for his expertise in politics and history, Professor Silverman is the author of many books and articles including: California: On the Road Histories; Los Angeles Times Front Page; and Imagining Internationalism. His scholarly work encompasses a diversity of topics including US, international politics, labor, Jewish, queer, and environmental history. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990 and has taught at universities in the US and China.
Silverman is a former public service and dramatic program producer and writer for KPFA-FM Radio, Berkeley. He also has extensive experience and training in theater. Silverman studied theater and dance at Bard College and continued his training at Epic West and the studio of the Blake Street Hawkeyes in California. He has authored several plays and screenplays, including a stage adaptation of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” which he directed. His script “Out of the Shadow,” a feature film on the life of immigrant writer Rose Cohen, was optioned. He also has been an actor, dancer, union organizer, construction laborer, and plumber.edit
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"Vividly capturing a moment in history when American and British unions seemed about to join with their Soviet counterparts to create a world unified by its workers, this wide-ranging study uncovers the social, cultural, and ideological... more
"Vividly capturing a moment in history when American and British unions seemed about to join with their Soviet counterparts to create a world unified by its workers, this wide-ranging study uncovers the social, cultural, and ideological currents that generated worldwide support among workers for a union international as well as the pull of national interests that ultimately subverted it. In a striking departure from the conventional wisdom, Victor Silverman argues that the ideology of the cold war was essentially imposed from above and came into conflict with the attitudes workers developed about internationalism. This work, the first to look at internationalism from the point of view of the worker, confirms at the level of social and cultural history that the postwar tensions between the Anglo-Americans and the Soviets took several years to become a new orthodoxy. Silverman demonstrates that for millions of trade unionists in dozens of countries the Cold War began in late 1948, rather than between 1945 and 1946, as generally recorded by diplomatic historians. Tracing the faultlines between politics and ideals and between national and class allegiances, Silverman shows how the vision of an international working-class recovery was ultimately discredited and the cold war set inexorably in motion."
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This chapters re-envisions citizenship, identity, and national belonging through a prism of family stories that reflect the Sephardic past in the US, the Eastern Mediterranean, Spain, and Portugal. The combination of memoir and history... more
This chapters re-envisions citizenship, identity, and national belonging through a prism of family stories that reflect the Sephardic past in the US, the Eastern Mediterranean, Spain, and Portugal. The combination of memoir and history wrestles with the personal and political implications of accepting redress for the historical wrongs of the expulsion of Jews from Iberia. Gaining citizenship in an ancient homeland disorients but also heals the author and his family.
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Despite the firing of 17 purported undocumented workers and bitter conflicts on campus, Pomona College’s dining hall staff overwhelmingly voted for UNITE HERE Local 11 in spring 2013 and approved a good contract less than a year later.... more
Despite the firing of 17 purported undocumented workers and bitter conflicts on campus, Pomona College’s dining hall staff overwhelmingly voted for UNITE HERE Local 11 in spring 2013 and approved a good contract less than a year later. Although a labor victory, the Pomona story, nonetheless, illustrates the obstacles to organizing low-wage immigrant workers at powerful institutions opposed to unionization. Drawing on interviews with labor and community activists, media reports, and the author’s participant observation, this article finds that campus and community support, while critical, could not prevent years of delays and serious acts of intimidation. This campaign had a transformative effect on the workers and their workplace but raises questions about long-term union strategy.
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Page 1. Ametican and Btftfsh Laboe, 39-49 ' Vs Vlctor Sllverman Page 2. Page 3. Imagining Intetnationalism in Ametican and Btitish Labot, 1939-49 Page 4. THE WORKING CLASS IN AMERICAN HISTORY Editotial Advisots David ...
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Despite the firing of 17 purported undocumented workers and bitter conflicts on campus, Pomona College’s dining hall staff overwhelmingly voted for UNITE HERE Local 11 in spring 2013 and approved a good contract less than a year later.... more
Despite the firing of 17 purported undocumented workers and bitter conflicts on campus, Pomona College’s dining hall staff overwhelmingly voted for UNITE HERE Local 11 in spring 2013 and approved a good contract less than a year later. Although a labor victory, the Pomona story, nonetheless, illustrates the obstacles to organizing low-wage immigrant workers at powerful institutions opposed to unionization. Drawing on interviews with labor and community activists, media reports, and the author’s participant observation, this article finds that campus and community support, while critical, could not prevent years of delays and serious acts of intimidation. This campaign had a transformative effect on the workers and their workplace but raises questions about long-term union strategy.
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¿Con la reelección de Obama, será que los Estados Unidos esta girando políticamente hacia la izquierda? ¿Después de décadas de dominación por conservadores, será posible que los EEUU acepte el modelo establecido en América Latina por... more
¿Con la reelección de Obama, será que los Estados Unidos esta girando políticamente hacia la izquierda? ¿Después de décadas de dominación por conservadores, será posible que los EEUU acepte el modelo establecido en América Latina por países como --Chile, Argentina, Uruguay y Brasil—y adopte un sendero centro-izquierda?
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Summary: This paper examines the working class in the United States and Britain in order to find a new perspective on the origins and break-up of the World Federation of Trade Unions. While most previous works have focused on the roles of... more
Summary: This paper examines the working class in the United States and Britain in order to find a new perspective on the origins and break-up of the World Federation of Trade Unions. While most previous works have focused on the roles of institutions and leaders, this ...