Kevin Boyle
Kevin Boyle is an accomplished historian and author renowned for his exploration of labor, race, and politics in American history. Born on October 7, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan, he pursued his education at the University of Detroit and later earned his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1990. Boyle's academic career began at the University of Toledo before he transitioned to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and, eventually, Ohio State University, where he became a notable figure in the field of history.
His influential works include "The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism" and "Arc of Justice," the latter winning the nonfiction National Book Award in 2004 and being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Boyle's scholarship often focuses on the intersections of labor movements and political activism, particularly in the context of post-World War II America and the civil rights movement. He has received numerous accolades, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation.
In recent years, Boyle has continued to contribute to public discussions on historical and contemporary issues, exemplified by his participation in PBS News Hour interviews. Throughout his career, he has been recognized for his impactful teaching and research, solidifying his status as a leading authority in American labor and race history. Boyle's personal life includes his marriage to historian Victoria Getis and their two children.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Kevin Boyle
Historian
- Born: October 7, 1960
- Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan
Contribution: Kevin Boyle is an award-winning historian and author, best known for his studies of labor, race, and politics in American history.
Background
Kevin Boyle was born on October 7, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan. He attended local Catholic schools before going to the University of Detroit, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1982. For his graduate studies, Boyle attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. During his doctoral program, Boyle was mentored by historian Sidney Fine, who is best known for his studies of politician Frank Murphy. Boyle received his PhD in 1990.
Career
Boyle began teaching after completing his doctoral program. He worked as an assistant professor of history at the University of Toledo in Ohio before being appointed to the same position at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was promoted to associate professor and, in 1996, received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. He was granted this honor again in 2001.
Boyle won a Fulbright scholarship in 1997. The scholarship allowed him to spend a year at University College Dublin in Ireland, where he taught courses on the history of the American civil rights movement.
Boyle’s first book, The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945–1968 (1995), looks at the role of labor unions in American politics during the post–World War II era. In it, Boyle examines the political activism of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) labor union and how its attempts to create social change were stifled by political parties. Much of his research following this book continued to focus on the relationship between American politics and labor movements.
Next, Boyle coauthored a photography book with historian Victoria Getis. The book, Muddy Boots and Ragged Aprons: Images of Working Class Detroit, 1900–1930 (1997), features a collection of photographs depicting working-class Detroit residents. Boyle and Getis provide insightful commentary along with the images.
For his next book, Organized Labor and American Politics, 1894–1994: The Labor-Liberal Alliance (1998), Boyle collected numerous essays that look at the power of the American labor movement throughout the twentieth century. Several scholars of the American labor movement contributed to the collection.
In 2001, Boyle received both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The same year, Boyle’s essay “The Ruins of Detroit: Exploring the Urban Crisis in the Motor City” was published in the spring issue of the Michigan Historical Review.
In 2004, Boyle published Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age. The book looks at the murder trial of Ossian Sweet, an African American and a descendant of enslaved people who moved into a white neighborhood in Detroit. Trouble began when a mob gathered outside his home and began threatening him. The event led to a white person being shot and Sweet being put on trial for murder.
In the book, Boyle presents a narrative history of US race relations in the 1920s and how an African American family went from being enslaved to becoming part of the middle class. For his work, Boyle won the nonfiction National Book Award in 2004. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history and the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a New York Times notable book for 2004.
Boyle published The Shattering: America in the 1960s in 2021. Central to his analysis of a decade marked by upheaval and contradictions is the 1963 attack by police on Black children in Birmingham, Alabama, that prompted President John F. Kennedy to finally take action on civil rights. In July 2024, Boyle was interviewed for PBS News Hour. He discussed the polarization of American political life in the wake of an attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump and parallels with the 1960s.
Boyle has sat on the editorial board for the academic journals Labor History and Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. After leaving his position as a professor of history at Ohio State University in Columbus in 2013, he joined the faculty in the Department of History at Northwestern University in Illinois that same year. Between 2015 and 2016, he was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and in 2017, he became the vice president of the American Historical Association's Professional Division.
Impact
Boyle has contributed greatly to the study of post–World War II labor movements and politics. His strong contributions to the study of Detroit labor and race history have shed new light on the subjects and made him a leading authority in the field. He is a member of the Society of American Historians and the PEN American Center. Ohio State University honored him with its 2007–8 University Distinguished Lecturer Award and its 2010 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Personal Life
Boyle is married to Victoria Getis. They have two children, Abby and Nan Boyle.
Bibliography
Boyle, Kevin. "Historian Explores How Polarization and Division Leads to Political Violence." Interview by Judy Woodruff, Sarah Clune Hartman, and Frank Carlson. PBS News Hour, 16 July 2024, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/historian-explores-how-polarization-and-division-leads-to-political-violence. Accessed 25 Sept. 2024.
Boyle, Kevin. “Interview with Kevin Boyle, Winner of the National Book Award.” Interview by Bonnie Goodman. History News Network. George Mason U, 23 Jan. 2005. Web. 25 July 2013.
Boyle, Kevin. “Kevin Boyle, Author of Arc of Justice.” Jerry Jazz Musician. Jerry Jazz Musician, 4 Feb. 2005. Web. 25 July 2013.
Czajka, Eric G. “Kevin Boyle Speaks on Racism in Detroit.” Michigan Journal. Michigan Journal, 21 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 July 2013.
"Kevin Boyle." Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences Department of History, history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/kevin-boyle.html. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024.
Martelle, Scott, and Lewis Beale. “Study of Race, Justice Wins National Book Award.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2004. Web. 25 July 2013.
Szalai, Jennifer. "Think You Know the 1960s? 'The Shattering' Asks You to Think Again." The New York Times, 27 Oct. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/books/review-shattering-america-1960s-kevin-boyle.html. Accessed 23 Sept. 2024.