By Frank Collerius
The Jefferson Market Library is pleased to announce its next free course in December: a discussion of radical immigrants in 19th century America. The professor, Pam Nogales, is an American History Ph.D. Candidate at New York University. Her research focuses on radical political thought in the United States over the course of the rapid social transformation of the 19th century. She recently made a noted and praised appearance in Frederick Wiseman’s documentary on The New York Public Library, Ex Libris!
Intellectual contributions by European immigrants in the 19th century make up a critical thread of the American reform tradition. German-Americans were the largest subgroup of Europe’s political refugees and exercised a direct and immediate impact on the political, social, and intellectual history of the United States. Many exiles of the 1830s and 1840s participated in a vast spectrum of political activity—from abolitionist societies in the North, anarchist associations in Chicago, trade union organizing in St. Louis, and building the International Working Man’s Association (IWMA) in New York, to participating in the radical faction of the Republican Party. These new Americans were part of a transatlantic network of reformers who sought to realize the ideals of the democratic revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries under the changed conditions of an industrializing nation.
Week 1: Wednesday, December 20th, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
English Immigrants
• Thomas Paine in America (the “Adopted Son of the Republic”)
• George H. Evans in New York (English, young immigrant)
• Thomas Devyr (Scottish, Chartist)
Week 2: Wednesday, December 27th, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
German Immigrants
• Karl Heinzen in Boston and his abolitionist record (German 1848er)
• Friedrich Sorge in New York and the founding of the Workingmen’s Association in America (German 1848er)
Frank Collerius is the Manager of Jefferson Market Library.
