Mill Talk: Who Built Lowell?

Professor Forrant will describe the life of the Lowell working class and discuss how history was made there from the bottom up!
About this Event

Presented by Bob Forrant, Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell

For its first 35 years, Lowell, MA, relied on Irish immigrants and Yankee farmers’ daughters to build the fledgling town and operate its textile machinery. A spinoff of the Waltham mills, this intertwining is often told as a wonderful idyll on the banks of the mighty Merrimack. Far from it. The Irish faced hardships, discrimination, and dangerous working conditions, while young women quickly organized against the treatment they received from mill overseers. In this talk, Professor Forrant will describe the life of the Lowell working class and discuss how history was made there from the bottom up!

Robert Forrant is a professor in the History Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, teaching courses on global labor issues, labor history, immigration, and international development. He is director of the department's graduate program. He has been a consultant to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Metalworkers Federation, and several trade unions. His research activities have been funded by, among others: the International Metalworkers Federation, the International Labour Organization, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Russell Sage Foundation, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the cities of Lowell and Leominister, Massachusetts.