{"id":1271,"date":"2020-06-25T11:26:32","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T15:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/149.4.100.129\/communications\/?page_id=1271"},"modified":"2021-11-23T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T22:37:08","slug":"faculty-profile-joshua-b-freeman","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/faculty-profile-joshua-b-freeman\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Profile Joshua B. Freeman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;||12px|||&#8221;][et_pb_row column_structure=&#8221;1_3,2_3&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;1_3&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243;][et_pb_blurb title=&#8221;Faculty Info&#8221; use_icon=&#8221;on&#8221; font_icon=&#8221;%%258%%&#8221; icon_color=&#8221;#e71939&#8243; icon_placement=&#8221;left&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243; header_font=&#8221;Open Sans||||||||&#8221; body_text_color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; body_font_size=&#8221;16px&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"QC_FieldTitle\">Name: <\/span><\/strong>Joshua B. Freeman<br \/><strong><span class=\"QC_FieldTitle\">Title:<\/span><\/strong>Professor<br \/><strong><span class=\"QC_FieldTitle\">Department: <\/span><\/strong>History<br \/><strong><span class=\"QC_FieldTitle\">Degree(s): <\/span><\/strong>BA; Harvard University; MA and PhD, Rutgers University<br \/><strong><span class=\"QC_FieldTitle\">Contact Information:<\/span><\/strong> <br \/>Phone: (212) 817-8436 <br \/>Office: Powdermaker 352Y <br \/>Email: <a href=\"mailto:Joshua.Freeman@qc.cuny.edu\">Joshua.Freeman@qc.cuny.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_text quote_border_weight=&#8221;2px&#8221; quote_border_color=&#8221;#e71939&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243; quote_font=&#8221;Open Sans|||||on|||&#8221; quote_text_color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; quote_font_size=&#8221;18px&#8221;]<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;One of the great attractions of Queens College is that it is an institution committed to bringing quality education at a high level to the kind of people I grew up around: immigrants and adult learners.&#8221;<br \/>&#8211; Joshua B. Freeman<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_accordion open_toggle_text_color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; open_toggle_background_color=&#8221;#ffffff&#8221; closed_toggle_background_color=&#8221;#ffffff&#8221; icon_color=&#8221;#e71939&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243; toggle_text_color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; toggle_font=&#8221;Open Sans|600|||||||&#8221; body_text_color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; body_font_size=&#8221;16px&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;#000000&#8243;][et_pb_accordion_item title=&#8221;Past Profiles&#8221; open=&#8221;on&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/student-profiles\/\">Student Profiles<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/alumni-profiles\/\">Alumni Profiles<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/faculty-profiles\/\">Faculty Profiles<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/staff-profiles\/\">Staff Profiles<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_accordion_item][\/et_pb_accordion][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=&#8221;2_3&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.8&#8243;][et_pb_image src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2020\/06\/Prof_Freeman_Landing.jpg&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.10&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; title_text=&#8221;Joshua B. Freeman&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; align=&#8221;center&#8221; border_width_all=&#8221;1px&#8221;][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.10&#8243; text_font=&#8221;Open Sans||||||||&#8221; text_font_size=&#8221;16px&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>An authority on the history of New York City\u2019s labor unions, Joshua Freeman has taught at Queens College since 1997. He is also on faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center and at CUNY\u2019s Joseph A. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dubbed \u201cthe dean of New York labor historians,\u201d Joshua B. Freeman says, \u201cI like explaining things.\u201d He does so with a scholar\u2019s care and a storyteller\u2019s flair. In epic histories, the professor of history compellingly explains social movements from local to global.<\/p>\n<p>Freeman\u2019s first solo book, In Transit (1988), chronicled New York\u2019s TransportWorkers Union from its radical birth in the Depression to the crippling 1966 transit strike. Working-Class New York (2000) attests to the enormous influence of everyday workers in shaping a world-class city. American Empire, published in summer 2012 as part of the Penguin History of the United States, considers how a postwar nation that rose to the peak of its power now faces the need for re-invention. American Empire is \u201cso broad and aimed at such a broad audience,\u201d Freeman relates. \u201cThe Wall Street Journal slammed it; the Boston Globe loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Freeman joined QC\u2019s faculty in 1997. A former coordinator of QC\u2019s Labor Studies Program, he teaches not only on campus but also in Manhattan at the CUNY Graduate Center and at CUNY\u2019s Joseph A. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies. Many of his students there are public sector employees, and \u201cunions have transformed their lives,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n<p>At QC last spring, Freeman invited his students to talk about war\u2019s impact personally. Their stories poured forth: having a father who is a Vietnam veteran . . . siblings serving in Iraq . . . fleeing a war-torn land. Teaching, Freeman says, opens \u201cwindows into worlds I otherwise would not experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The working-class milieu is one Freeman knows well. He tells of growing up in Little Neck with \u201cextraordinarily well-read parents who were examples of what a public university made possible for children of working people.\u201d As a physiological psychology major at Harvard University, he came to realize that lab research \u201cwasn\u2019t my cup of tea.\u201d After graduating in 1970, he \u201cscuffled along\u201d for six years: \u201cI drove a cab, worked at a plastic pumpkin factory, did computer programming\u201d before earning a history PhD. In the mid-1980s, Freeman assisted renowned labor historian Herbert Gutman on a social history project at the CUNY Graduate Center.<\/p>\n<p>Union groups, media, museums, and documentary-makers readily call upon his expertise. Freeman also has been a resource for QC student groups \u201cinvolved with the plight of exploited workers.\u201d He observes, \u201cIt is really admirable that students at Queens can project themselves into a situation of workers making baseball caps overseas under terrible conditions, and use whatever leverage they have to improve those conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Americans, \u201cOne of the great achievements of the labor movement and social reform is that we get to retire,\u201d Freeman notes. At 63, he is in no hurry to join this movement. Energized by his students and colleagues, he enthusiastically labors on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book he\u2019s reading:<\/strong> Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, \u201ca great classic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Musical tastes: <\/em>Handel, Bob Dylan, John Coltrane. \u201cLate in life I have become a serious opera fan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Joshua B. FreemanTitle:ProfessorDepartment: HistoryDegree(s): BA; Harvard University; MA and PhD, Rutgers UniversityContact Information: Phone: (212) 817-8436 Office: Powdermaker 352Y Email: Joshua.Freeman@qc.cuny.edu &#8220;One of the great attractions of Queens College is that it is an institution committed to bringing quality education at a high level to the kind of people I grew up around: immigrants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"page_category":[],"wf_page_folders":[137],"class_list":["post-1271","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1893,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1271\/revisions\/1893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page_category?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}