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Award-winning author Adam Hochschild has uncovered the riveting story of Rose Pastor Stokes—the immigrant firebrand who became one of the most celebrated figures of the tumultuous early 20th century. In 1905, Rose Pastor of the Lower East Side married philanthropist James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of a family whose wealth was likely unimaginable to the former cigar-factory worker. The couple met at University Settlement on Eldridge Street, where Pastor, writing for the Jewish Daily News, interviewed Stokes, a leader among the wave of college graduates hoping to serve the crowded, poverty-stricken neighborhood. Did this unlikely union survive? What became of Rose Pastor Stokes, prominent Socialist, labor activist, and birth control advocate? Hochschild will illuminate this remarkable tale.

Adam Hochschild’s writing often focuses on human rights and social justice. Among his other books are: King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa; Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves, finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. 

Co-hosted by the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative (LESPI), Village Preservation, and the Victorian Society New York as part of our Women’s History Month programming.