Over the past half-century, one of America's oldest industries -- textiles and apparel -- has seen a near-total collapse, commensurate with the rapid rise of global trade in this sector. Thanks to global trade, deindustrialization, and automation, current employment in the domestic industry is less than one-tenth of its high levels in the 1970s. Drawing from his award-winning work, Fraying Fabric: How Trade Policy and Industrial Decline Transformed America (University of Illinois Press, 2022), historian James Benton (Georgetown University) will explain the root causes behind this industry's disappearance, which has contributed significantly to the national political and economic shifts of the last 50 years. The discussion will include examples of contemporary efforts to sustain this historic industry, even as it faces new threats of disruption from tariffs and global "fast fashion" sellers like Temu and Shein.

James C. Benton is director of the Race and Economic Empowerment Project at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University. This position links KI and Georgetown students with community activists and organizations combating inequality in Washington, D.C. His community work includes serving on the board of directors of DC Jobs with Justice.

He is a co-designer of Creating an Equitable City, a series of experiential learning courses taught at Georgetown’s Capitol Applied Learning Lab focusing on inequality in Washington. He is also the author of Fraying Fabric, which traces U.S. trade policy and political shifts in the postwar era amid the decline of the American textile and apparel industries.

Dr. Benton earned doctoral and MA degrees in U.S. history and an MA in liberal studies from Georgetown University. He also holds a BA in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Our neighborhoods were once filled with thousands of Union troops in and around the Civil War Defenses of Washington, and for a few days in July 11-12, 1864, attacking Rebel troops as well.  This presentation, rich with maps and photos, will explain what happened here during the Civil War, with a particular focus on the stretch of fortifications from Fort Reno over to Fort Totten.

Gary Thompson is a co-founder and the current President of the non-profit Alliance to Preserve the Civil War Defenses of Washington.  He is an avid student of the defenses, a dynamic speaker on the topic, and also a reenactor of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace, “Savior of Washington” from the Battle of Monocacy.  Gary has lived in Chevy Chase DC for over 30 years, 8 years on the ANC, and when he doesn’t have his nose in a Civil War history book, either practices law or runs in Rock Creek Park. Gary is also Chair of the DC Board of Elections.