and now to introduce joseph, joseph mccartin is historian of the u.s. labor movement and 20th century of social and political history. he received his ph.d from the state university of new york at being attended he has been associate professor of history at georgetown university since 1999. for the last two years he is director george downs an issue for labour and the working poor. since 1999 book, "labor's great war," one of the award for the best book in u.s. labor history. he has been the recipient of grants and fellowships from national fellowships from national endowment for the humanities,. >> and philosophical society, the woodrow wilson international center for scholars, and the charles warren center at harvard university. is as his have been published in both scholarly and popular press as "the new republic," "the new york times," and journal of american history, among others. his current research scores the impact of organizations on politics government and private-sector labor relations. this is the interest led him to write the book easy to

joseph a. mccartin. [applause] >> thank you very much, traci. appreciate that introduction, and thank you very much for your work, preserving the labor movement in the southern labor archives at georgia state university. um, without that repository, i couldn't have written this book, and we would know much less, i think, about one of the most important events in recent american labor history. thanks, too, to my hosts here at the carter center, especially tony clark and director jay hakes. i did an important segment of my research here at the carter library and worked at other presidential libraries, the kennedy library and, of course, the library of ronald reagan. for those of you who don't though them, these presidential libraries are really a treasure-trove of american history, and we're all indebted to the folks that maintain these records and make them available to future historians and really to the public and american citizens. so it's a pleasure to be here to speak with you tonight about my book, "collision course: ronald reagan, the air