Kevin E. Grimm, Ph.D.

Bio

Dr. Kevin E. Grimm studies the various relationships between the United States, American and international labor organizations (particularly the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions), development and modernization, and African nations during the 1950s and 1960s. He is a review editor for H-Diplo and is a section editor for the digitization of Routledge’s Encyclopedia of the Cold War for Routledge Resources Online. His work has appeared in Cold War History, the Journal of Contemporary History, Labor History, the Journal of West African History, and Media History. His book chapters include an analysis of Western labor philanthropy in Africa in American Philanthropy at Home and Abroad, a historiography chapter on the Eisenhower administration’s relationship with the Third World in the Blackwell Companion to Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a chapter on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violent thought in The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750. His first book, America Enters the Cold War: The Road to Global Commitment, 1945-1950 (2018), is part of Routledge’s Critical Moments in American History series. He is currently working on a book on the ICFTU and Ghana during the 1950s. He lives with his wife and children in Norfolk and attends Trinity Presbyterian Church.

Publications

America Enters the Cold War: The Road to Global Commitment, 1945-1950. New York: Routledge, 2017. Part of Routledge’s Critical Moments in American History Series.

“Views From West Africa: Ghanaian Attention to Race Relations in 1950s America,” Media History 30, no. 2 (2024): 239-253.

“'A First Class Medium': The Cautious Anti-Communism of the ICFTU's International Labour Film Institute, 1953-1972,” Labor History 64, no. 2 (2024): 221-239.

“Perils, Promises, and Perspectives: Nuclear Weapons, Atomic Energy, and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in the Early Cold War,” Cold War History 23, no. 4 (2023): 495-515.

“‘With Flags Waving’: African Diasporic Agency in the 1960s ICFTU-Liberian Relationship,” Journal of West African History 9, no. 1 (2023): 85-110.

“‘Encroaching Upon Trade Union Preserves’: The 1950s Fight Over Global Labor Norms Between the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and Moral Re-Armament,” Labor History 62, no. 4 (2021): 489-510.

“Gazing Toward Ghana: African American Agency in the Eisenhower Administration’s Relations with Africa,” Journal of Contemporary History 48, July (2013): 578-596.

“From Books to Land Rovers: The Informal, Small Philanthropy of the AFL-CIO and the ICFTU in Africa During the Early Cold War,” in Ben Offiler and Rachel Williams, eds. American Philanthropy at Home and Abroad: New Directions in the History of Giving. London: Bloomsbury, 2022.

“One Man’s Peace: Influences on Martin Luther King Jr.’s Non-violent Philosophy” in William M. Knoblauch, Michael Loadenthal, and Christian P. Peterson, eds. The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Historiographical Essay, “Eisenhower and the Third World” in Chester J. Pach, Jr, ed. A Companion to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2017.

Corrie Decker and Elisabeth McMahon. The Idea of Development in Africa: A History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020. H-Diplo, October 2023. https://networks.h-net.org/group/discussions/20006119/h-diplo-review-essay-525-grimm-decker-mcmahon-idea-development-africa

Alice Wiemers. Village Work: Development and Rural Statecraft in Twentieth-Century Ghana. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2021. Journal of West African History 9, no. 1 (2023): 147-150.

Abou B. Bamba. African Miracle, African Mirage: Transnational Politics and the Paradox of Modernization in Ivory Coast. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2016. Journal of West African History 7, no. 1 (2021): 148-150.

Kate Skinner. The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland: Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914-2014. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Journal of West African History 5, no. 1 (2019): 147-150.

Paul J. Heer. Mr. X and the Pacific: George F. Kennan and American Policy in East Asia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018. H-Diplo, 2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/reviews/2662582/grimm-heer-mr-x-and-pacific-george-f-kennan-and-american-policy-east.

James Gow, Funmi Olonisakin, and Ernst Dijxhoorn, eds. Militancy and Violence in West Africa: Religion, Politics and Radicalisation. New York: Routledge, 2013. Human Rights Review 16 (1), (2015): 77-78.

Dayo F. Gore. Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War. New York: New York University Press, 2011. The Journal of African American History 97, Summer (2012): 342-344.