Robert Jackson Alexander papers

1946-1976

Robert Jackson Alexander (1918- ) earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1950, and has taught economics at Rutgers University since 1947. His field of specialization, on which he has written frequently, is labor movements in Central and South America. During his extensive travels through the Americas, Jackson conducted interviews with politicians, labor leaders, diplomats, workers, businessmen, educators, and persons from all walks of life. Alexander wrote summaries of his interviews and recorded the substance of the conversations. He used the same procedure to record interviews in the United States and other countries. Collection consists primarily of carbon copies of Alexander's interview summaries. The vast majority of the interviews concern Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Interviews conducted between 1946-1956 are arranged by country with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela being particularly prominent. The rest of the interviews are arranged chronologically. Interviews concerning Central and South America cover a wide range of topics but concentrate on the labor movement and political developments. Other interviews have the same focus but those concerning the United States pertain to socialist parties as well. Also, typescripts of some of Alexander's writings.