Isaac Silver brings stories from social justice movements to life in a unique and engaging way: using items from his vast archive of pinback buttons to teach people’s history from the grassroots level. A Chicago-based activist, collector, and historian, he’s spent over two decades as a participant and leader in causes ranging from opposing war, police brutality and the death penalty, to building solidarity with union drives and strikes and supporting immigrants organizing for justice.

This lifelong commitment has driven home the importance of learning from past generations and looking for unique vantage points and intersections of issues. A common thread in all his presentations (which frequently draw on oral histories and the experiences of working class people) is the capacity of everyday people to change their circumstances and make history through collective action.

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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 has curated exhibitions and programs for conferences, universities, community spaces and unions that illuminate important themes from past struggles for social justice and connect to the experiences of his audiences.

He maintains a lively social media presence, sharing the stories of buttons from specific days in history and that are relevant to contemporary issues.

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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

MORE REVIEWS

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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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