Paul Le Blanc (historian)


Paul Le Blanc is an American historian at La Roche University in Pittsburgh as well as labor and socialist activist who has written or edited more than 30 books on topics such as Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg.

Background

Paul Joseph Le Blanc was born in 1947 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania and spent his childhood in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. His parents Gaston Le Blanc and Shirley Harris were labor activists; he has two sisters.
Le Blanc studied at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on history and receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, a Master of Arts degree in 1980, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1989.

Career

In 1965, Le Blanc joined the “New Left” group Students for a Democratic Society. In 1966, as a conscientious objector, he worked for the Quaker-based American Friends Service Committee in Pittsburgh and Baltimore. In the early 1970s, he served on the board of the Pittsburgh Peace and Freedom Center and the coordinating committee of the National Peace Action Coalition. He opposed the Vietnam war and supported anti-racist activity – most prominently as part of the Pittsburgh Black Construction Coalition of 1969 – pro-feminist activities, defense of Latin American political prisoners, and Central America solidarity work.
In the 1990s, he became active in the Thomas Merton Center. He has been a member of the Socialist Workers Party, the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, Solidarity, and the International Socialist Organization. He was active in efforts to create a Labor Party. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Since 2000, Le Blanc has supported the Green Party. He has opposed war and militarism, including US military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also collaborated closely with South African poet and global justice activist Dennis Brutus in building Pittsburgh participation in World Social Forums taking place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2003 and Mumbai, India, in 2004.
In 2000, Le Blanc joined the faculty of La Roche College as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and as a professor of history.
He has lectured for the International Institute for Research and Education and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and writes for the Center for Economic Research and Social Change's International Socialist Review.

Personal life

Le Blanc married and had two sons.
Le Blanc is currently a member of:
He has been a member of:
Le Blanc's influences include: David Montgomery, Philip S. Foner, Frank Lovell, Richard N. Hunt, Paul Sweezy, George Breitman, Ernest Mandel, and Michael Löwy.

Works

Magazines and journals to which he contributes include:
Publications include: