Shelton Stromquist, Claiming the City. A Global History of Workers’ Fight for Municipal Socialism (open lecture/book presentation)

In the late nineteenth century, urban workers fought to make their cities livable and democratic through municipal socialist politics, challenging the class power of urban elites as well as the centralizing tendencies of national social-democratic movements. In his latest book, Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers’ Fight for Municipal Socialism (Verso Books, 2023), Shelton Stromquist offers a world-spanning account of the rise of municipal socialism, drawing on stories of local activists and their social-democratic movements in cities like Malmö, Stuttgart, Vienna, Milwaukee, and many others.

Shelton Stromquist is a historian specializing in labor and social history and a labor and civil rights activist. He is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Iowa.