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The button-making workshop was a huge success! We were so glad to have Isaac’s expertise; he did a fantastic job engaging the students. They absolutely loved it and had a great time creating their own buttons.

Thank you again for helping make this possible!

Sara Cluggish
Director and Curator, Perlman Teaching Museum
​Carleton College

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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Buttons and pins may seem like simple, small material artifacts that signify identification with a labor union, a political campaign, or a broader movement—and they are indeed that—but they are also gestures that bind leaders, artists/designers, and everyday people through the simple act of attaching them to oneself day after day. The presentations and workshops of Buttons of the Left bring the ongoing history of social and labor movement buttons to life, reminding us that big movements are often made up of a collection of small acts by many people.

Ryan Griffis
Artist and Professor of Art & Design
​University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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 I felt like I was in a Smithsonian! There was a great breadth and depth of knowledge available in a way I've never seen with union pins.

Aaron D.
North Carolina AFL-CIO

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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Isaac’s presentation delighted an audience spanning fellow collectors, labor scholars and young people yet unfamiliar with the movements his collections bring to life. All found new ways to understand and connect with the long sweep of struggles fought by everyday people who — by donning buttons, the “emblem of solidarity” across people’s history — became part of something larger than themselves. 

Rebecca Burns
In These Times Magazine
Institute for Public Affairs

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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Isaac Silver makes labor history feel alive and accessible. He turns the aesthetics of one of the great union traditions, buttons and pins, into clues to unlock the story of the modern American labor movement. In person, he engages audiences in a refreshing conversational style that encourages active participation in his class. All this leads to a session where participants feel empowered to interpret labor history and come away with a better understanding of their role in the movement.

Gavin Strassel
UAW Archivist
Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs
Wayne State University

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