09/09/2025
Don't Miss this Talk!
Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa vanished in 1975 outside a Detroit restaurant, and his death has been the stuff of enduring mystery and legend. But there's so much more to his story and the story of the Union he led in the 1950s when one-third of American workers belonged to unions.
Fearlessly organizing workers, using legal and illegal means, Hoffa and his friends were famous and infamous figures in the 1950s. This talk examines the impact of fame on Jimmy Hoffa’s friend group, showing how it shaped their work, their friendships, their s*x lives, their families, and their leisure time.
Sometimes people assume that labor activism allowed people to achieve the white picket fence life of the 1950s, as a union wage paid for a house in the suburbs where husbands were the sole breadwinner for wives and children. TEAMSTERS METROPOLIS, however, shows the Hoffa’s friends’ deep ambivalence about being “normal” was the key to their success as militant union activists.
Come hear Earlham College professor Ryan Murphy talk about his new book TEAMSTERS METROPOLIS next Monday at 4 p.m. in Bowden Hall 118! Open to all--undergraduate students are especially welcome to attend!
Sponsored by the Hightower Fund (in addition to departments listed on the flyer).
