Cornell Chronicle

Nick Salvatore, ‘one of our foremost historians,’ dies at 82

By Julie Greco ILR School
December 12, 2025

Nick Salvatore, a professor emeritus in the ILR School, an award-winning historian and teacher and lifelong champion for working people, died on Nov. 29 in Ithaca. He was 82.


Cornell University File Photo
Nick Salvatore

Salvatore taught at the ILR School and in the American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences for 36 years, retiring in 2017 as the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Emeritus Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations. The author of three books, including “Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist” (1982), which received both the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize.

Two other books followed, “We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webber” (1996), which received the New England History Association's Outstanding Book Prize, and “Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America” (2005), which examines the life of one of the most influential preachers of his generation.

“A wonderful colleague and friend, husband, father and grandfather, a hugger and a laugher, Nick was passionate about so many things: American history and politics; justice for working people; teaching and mentoring undergraduates; Cornell University; classical music, jazz and gospel, and a well-cooked Italian meal,” said Glenn Altschuler, Ph.D. ’76, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies Emeritus (A&S).”

In a 2005 interview, Salvatore said, “the glue that holds all three of these subjects together is the alternative perspective they share on the meaning of being an American … These are issues and people I find intriguing – people who revere the part of the Declaration of Independence that reads, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights,’ and who question the way those values are applied in modern society.”

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Julie Greco is the communications director for the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.