Ronald Schatz is Professor of U.S. history and a current Tutor in the College of Social Studies. His teaching and research interests include labor history, the conservative movement, labor and religion, and American Jewish history. He is the author of The Electrical Workers: A History of Labor at General Electric and Westinghouse, 1923-60, and of many journal articles. 

Professor Schatz’s new book, The Labor Board Crew tells the story of a team of young economists and lawyers recruited to the National War Labor Board to resolve union-management conflicts during the Second World War. They went on to exert broad influence on the U.S. and the world for next half-century.   

They handled thousands of grievances and strikes in almost every unionized industry. In the 1960s they also were appointed as university administrators charged with quelling the student conflicts. They developed systems that advanced public sector unionization and revolutionized employment conditions in Major League Baseball. Their protégé George Shultz used mediation techniques learned from his mentors to assist in the integration of Southern public schools, institute affirmative action in industry, and conduct Cold War negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev. 

Ronald Schatz studied at the University of Wisconsin, Warwick University (England), Harvard University, and received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh.