Join us for a Book Talk on Tuesday, May 18th at 2pm with Dr. Allyson Brantley, author of Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors and Remade American Consumer Activism. Brewing a Boycott tells the story of one of the longest anti-corporate campaigns in U.S. history, the Coors Boycott. From the 1950s to the 1990s, union members, progressive students, Black and Chicano activists, Native Americans, feminists, and members of the LGBTQ+ community built a powerful coalition to fight the antiunionism, discrimination, and notoriously conservative politics of Coors Brewing Company. The activists at the heart of this campaign built bridges between divided communities, developed innovative campaign strategies, and refused to give up until the company met their demands. The story highlights the vibrancy of activism in the final decades of the twentieth century and the enduring legacy of that organizing for communities, consumer activists, and corporations today.

Dr. Allyson Brantley teaches, researches, and writes about the history of the United States, particularly in the 20th century. Her interests include the history of consumer culture, social movements and activism, and the US-Mexico borderlands. Dr. Brantley received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2016 and her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Her recent publications include “Borderlands of Work,” a review for the New Labor Forum, and “’Mexico, At Our Very Door’: Prohibition-Era Brewing in the US-Mexico Borderlands,” in the Journal of the West (Summer 2016).

Join us on Facebook Live: facebook.com/UCLALaborStudies