Thank you visiting my website! Most of the documents on this site were prepared for my preliminary examination portfolio and therefore reflect my first three years of work in graduate school (through Spring 2008). The bulk of the files is password protected--please e-mail me if you would like access. For more information on the History Department's new portfolio-based prelim exams, please click here.
I study American social and political history, focusing on labor and civil rights in the Twentieth Century South and West. My dissertation follows the ordinary working-class women and men who organized the African American and ethnic Mexican civil rights movements in Texas, from the peak of "civil rights unionism" in the Depression and World War II through the next wave of upheaval in the 1960s. My committee is composed of William H. Chafe (Chair), Robert Korstad, Sarah Deutsch, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Sociology), and Lawrence Goodwyn.
Please begin by consulting my dissertation abstract, full prospectus, and intellectual agenda. Enjoy!
Max Krochmal
Duke University
Center for Documentary Studies
Box 90802
Durham, NC 27708-0802
Office Location: CDS Bridges Room 210
(919) 471-9252
Banner photo illustration: Max Krochmal, "The People Behind the Movements," featuring (left to right) Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967 (foreground; IMDB.com); pecan shellers, San Antonio, 1939 (background); Oil Workers Local 23, Port Arthur, 1945; ILGWU strike, San Antonio, 1936; pecan shellers, San Antonio, 1939; UPWA Local 292, Fort Worth, 1952 (all Texas photos available online in the Southwest Labor History Archives, National Labor College); Cesar Chavez ca. 1966 (Library of Congress).