Hazel Manross Whitman Hertzberg (September 16, 1918October 19, 1988) was an American historian. Her scholarship focused on the Indigenous people of North America. She was a professor of history and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Early life and education

Hazel Manross Whitman was born on September 16, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, to Grace (Wood) and Charles Theodore Whitman. She attended the University of Chicago (AB, 1958) and Columbia University (MA, 1961; PhD, 1968). While at university, she worked as an activist for sharecroppers in Mississippi, promoted the Indian independence movement, and was involved with the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

. She received her AB after she began teaching social studies in New York.

Career

Hertzberg taught at the elementary and secondary level and worked in curriculum development. She co-wrote a seventh-grade anthropology curriculum for New York students as part of the Anthropology Curriculum Project. Later in her career, Hertzberg began writing about the history and theory of education. Her study ''Social Studies Reform, 1880–1980'' (1981), covers the history of social studies in the United States. Reviewing ''The Great Tree and the Longhouse: The Culture of the Iroquois'' (1966), the anthropologist

Elisabeth Tooker Elisabeth Jane Tooker (August 2, 1927January 13, 2005) was an American anthropologist and a leading historian on the Iroquois nations in north-eastern United States. Family Elisabeth Jane Tooker was born on August 2, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, t ...

said that, despite being written for children, it was "probably the best summary of aboriginal Iroquois culture since Henry Morgan's ''League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois''". ''The Search for an American Indian Identity: Modern Pan-Indian Movements'' (1971) discusses pan-Indianism after the

Ghost Dance The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilso ...

(from roughly the 1900s to the 1970s), covering organizations including the Society of American Indians and the

Teepee Order of America A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...

Personal life

Hazel married

Sidney Hertzberg Sidney "Sonny" Hertzberg (July 29, 1922 – July 25, 2005) was an American professional basketball player. Early life Hertzberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Crown Heights, and was Jewish. Hertzberg played at Samuel J. Tilden H ...

, a journalist and activist, on August 25, 1941. She and Sidney co-wrote ''The UN in the Age of Change'', a short book on the United Nations. They had two children, including

Hendrik Hertzberg Hendrik Hertzberg (born July 23, 1943) is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. He has also been a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of ''The New Republic'', and ...

. She died on October 19, 1988, in Rome, while attending a conference.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hertzberg, Hazel 1918 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American women writers Columbia University alumni University of Chicago alumni Teachers College, Columbia University faculty