The Rise & Fall of American Manufacturing
The Brown & Sharpe Project
For almost 150 years, Brown & Sharpe was a Providence cornerstone, employing thousands of workers and changing the physical landscape of the city. Join author Gerald Carbone and Rhode Island Historical Society Executive Director C. Morgan Grefe as they discuss the revolutionary, global business that helped reshape American industry. Carbone’s forthcoming book, Brown & Sharpe: The Partnership that Shaped the World (working title), traces the story of this industrial giant through the lives of the men and women who shaped not only the company, but American Industrial Capitalism. Beginning in the first half of the 19th century and reaching through the country’s longest strike, the story spans two centuries, yet only three generations. Carbone will speak about researching and writing this sprawling epic that traces the history of one of America’s most influential companies at the center of global enterprise.
In partnership with the Rhode Island Historical Society
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Gerald M. Carbone was a journalist for twenty-five years, mostly for the Providence Journal and has been recognized as an expert on the life of Nathanael Greene by various historical societies. He has won two of American journalism’s most prestigious prizes–the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University. He lives in Warwick, Rhode Island.
C. Morgan Grefe is the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Historical Society. She has been at the RIHS for more than twelve years, serving as the Director of the Goff Center for Education and Public Programs for 6.5 of those. In the summer of 2011 she took the helm of the RIHS. Her work as a historian focuses on U.S. social, cultural and public history, with special attention on R.I. She holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown and a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in the same. Her recent publications include, “ ‘Jews, Turks, and Infidels:’ How Rhode Island’s Lively Experiment Helped Chart the American Way” and “Sourcing a Rhode Island Legend: The Story of Kady Brownell.” She lectures widely on topics relating to Rhode Island’s social and cultural history, as well as the history education crisis in our state and nation. She has lived in Rhode Island for nineteen years and makes her home in Pawtucket with her spouse, artist Gage Prentiss.
This program was sponsored by:
This season was generously supported by the following friends and partners:
