Randy D. McBee, Ph.D.

Senior Associate Dean of Graduate, Faculty, and Administrative Affairs

Dr. Randy D. McBee's research focuses primarily on the history of the working class in the United States throughout the 20th century. His work pays particular attention to issues of class, race, and gender and the broader intersections between places of work and leisure. 

His first book, "Dance Hall Days: Intimacy and Leisure among Working Class Immigrants" (New York University Press, 2000), explores the relationship between the rise of commercial leisure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the influx of working-class immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, and male culture. 

His most recent book, "Born to be Wild: The Rise of the American Motorcyclist" (University of North Carolina Press, 2015) explores the history of motorcyclists and the rise of the “biker” since the Hollister Rally in 1947. It examines the motorcyclist's largely working-class roots and the rise of the "outlaw" motorcyclist in the 1940s and 1950s through the development of the motorcycle rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.  He considers how that image and that movement shaped the public's understanding of motorcycling and motorcyclists and their larger impact on American culture and politics.

Field:

• History: Recent America, Immigration & Labor

Books:

• "Born to be Wild: The Rise of the American Motorcyclist" (University of North Carolina Press, 2015)
• "Dance Hall Days" (New York University Press, 2000)