Alexander Aviña at Public Books:
One of the leading historians of the Americas of our age, professor Greg Grandin is one of those rare scholars who has managed to attract the attention of academic and broad public audiences with his prolific writings and clear political commitments. The Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, Grandin is the author of numerous books, including the 2019 Pulitzer Prize–winning The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. In this interview we discuss his most recent publication, America, América: A New History of the New World, an ambitious, compelling, and provocative look at how five centuries of myriad engagements made both Latin America and the United States.
Alexander Aviña (AA): Why did you become a historian of Latin America?
Greg Grandin (GG): I’m the first person in my family—though there wasn’t much of a family to speak of—to go to college; and I went late, about eight or nine years after high school. After high school I mostly worked in restaurant kitchens, bartending, and other odd jobs. For a few months, I worked as an exterminator during my William Burroughs phase. I wound up going to Brooklyn College mostly as a way to avoid going into the IBEW Local 3’s apprentice program, the electricians’ union. The father of a friend got me in; it was, um, let’s say competitive, and it helped to be connected. And it was too good a paying job to simply turn down.
More here.
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