On June 5, 2018, labor studies lost a lion with the passing of Ira Berlin. As the outpouring of grief and remembrance on social media in the hours following news of his death made clear, Ira was far more than an astonishingly productive and influential scholar of African American working-class history; he extended the insights of W.E.B. Du Bois for a later historiographical generation as much as anyone. He was our mentor, our muse, our friend, and our guide. He crafted his students even as he helped to usher African American history into mainstream intellectual life. No one could pass through Ira’s orbit without being profoundly and forever touched by his wit and his wisdom. He took everyone under his wing—shy undergraduates, cocky graduate students, and on at least one memorable occasion, a neighborhood kid deep in the throes of a National History Day project. None of us were too...
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