Peter Cole

About the Author

Peter Cole is a Professor of History at Western Illinois University. He is the author of Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive Era Philadelphia and is currently at work on a book entitled Dockworker Power: Labor, Race & Technology in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area. He has published extensively on labor history and politics.

Author Archive Page

Post-apartheid South African flag being unveiled

New post-apartheid South African flag being unveiled to the United States, 1994. (Photo: White House)

Dylan Roof and the South African Flag

August 17, 2015By Peter Cole

Looking at the history of twentieth-century South Africa could help Americans deal with a similarly troubling legacy.

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Group of young white men turn a car on its side during Detroit riots of 1943

Rioting: An American Tradition

Looking at the rioters in Baltimore, or any other place, in isolation misses the point.

Gate_House,_Cemetery,_Gettysburg

The Story of America in Twelve Cemeteries

Our Past is Written in Stone

Julia Ward Howe

Mother’s Day or Mothers’ Day

Mothers’ Day did not start as a way to encourage people to be nice to their mothers, but as an impassioned effort by women to end war forever.

The Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862

Exploring an important step toward the abolition of slavery in the United States

Bruce Gillers - October 13, 2021:
The Boy Scout Council in Chinle Arizona was the name of the [...]

Carolyn Marvin - February 11, 2021:
Example: no proof of any silk dress...part of the poem written later. [...]

KateThomas - December 8, 2020:
Thank you. This has given me a greater insight into the historian [...]

Michael C. Lucas - August 5, 2020:
The American Government did not make a deal for Forty Acres and [...]