In Remembering Lattimer,  Paul Shackel confronts the legacies and lessons of the 1897 Lattimer massacre, a tragedy where 19 unnaturalzed, unarmed coal miners were killed in the anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania while marching for equal pay and better working conditions.  

He blends archival, and archaeological research with interviews and weighs how local members remember – and forget – what happened. Now in a position of power the descendants of the slain miners have themselves become rabidly anti-union and anti-immigrant as Dominicans and other Latinos change the community.

Shackel shows how the social, economic, and political circumstances surrounding historic Lattimer connect in profound ways to the riven communities today.

Paul Shackel is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland. His research projects have focused on the role of archaeology in civic engagement activities related to race and labor. A sample of his work on this topic includes:

New Philadelphia: An Archaeology of Race in the Heartland (2011)
Archaeology, Heritage and Civic Engagement: Working toward the Public Good (2014), coauthored volume with Barbara Little