July 5, 2011 — Lara Putnam, associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, follows the history of migration in the Caribbean during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, exploring the experiences of workers as they migrated between the United States, Caribbean islands, and Central and South America. Putnam also discusses the efforts of the nations involved to control these movements. Finally, Putnam traces the origins of jazz, the role of newspapers in linking migrants, and the development of black internationalism.
Note: In the interview, uploaded to Remapping Debate in March 2013 unchanged from its original airing on WRCT-Pittsburgh, Putnam and Brown refer to the title of the manuscript as “The Rights of Passage.” This study has now appeared in print under the title, “Radical Moves: Caribbean Migrants and the Politics of Race in the Jazz Age.”
