Oscar Handlin
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Oscar Handlin (1915–2011) was an American
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
. As a professor of history at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigration history in the 1950s. Handlin won the 1952
Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...
for ''
The Uprooted ''The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People'' is book about European migrations into the United States by Oscar Handlin. It won the Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered ...
'' (1951). Handlin's 1965 testimony before Congress was said to "have played an important role" in passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that abolished the discriminatory immigration quota system in the US.


Biography

Handlin was born in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, on September 29, 1915, the eldest of three children of Russian-Jewish immigrants. His mother, the former Ida Yanowitz, came to the United States in 1904 and worked in the garment industry. His father, Joseph, immigrated in 1913 after attending a commercial college in Ukraine and being stationed in Harbin, China, as a soldier during the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
. Handlin's parents were passionately devoted to literature and the life of the mind. Their experience of religious persecution in
Czarist Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...
made them fiercely devoted to democracy and social justice (Handlin was a proto-"red diaper baby"). The couple owned a grocery store, the success of which along with real estate investments enabled them to send their children, Oscar, Nathan, and Sarah, to Harvard. Known for his prodigious memory that allowed him to attend classes without taking notes, in 1930, Handlin entered Brooklyn College at age 15, graduating in 1934, then earning a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...
degree from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1935, after which he won a Frederick Sheldon Fellowship for research in Europe. "'I don't know why,' Dr. Handlin joked in a 1952 ostonGlobe interview. 'I guess they just liked my face.' Traveling in England, Ireland, Italy, and France, he began assembling material that would become his first book 'Boston's Immigrants, 1790–1865' 941" Between 1936 and 1938, Handlin taught history at Brooklyn College before reentering
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. According to Handlin, it was Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. who "directed my attention to the subjects of social history that have since occupied much of my attention," urging Handlin to write his dissertation on immigration to Boston in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1940 he received his PhD, joining the faculty in 1939 and remaining until 1986, his work centering around the topic of immigrants in the US and their influence on culture. During his time as a graduate student at Harvard, Handlin was denied the position of vice president in the Henry Adams Club for being Jewish. He was among the first Jewish scholars appointed to a full professorship at Harvard. He also taught at the
Harvard Extension School Harvard Extension School (HES) is the extension school of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school is one among 12 schools that grant degrees and falls under the Division of Continuing Education in the Harvard Faculty of Art ...
. A man of few words outside the lecture room, Handlin made every word count. He was possessed of a sardonic wit honed by his love of the novels of
James Branch Cabell James Branch Cabell (; April 14, 1879  – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and ''belles-lettres''. Cabell was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His work ...
, the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan, and the cartoons of Al Capp, who was a family friend. Handlin was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1999. He died at age 95 on September 20, 2011, in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. Despite being a staunch anti-Communist and
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
hawk, he was honored by both leftist and rightist academics.


Administrator

Handlin was very active as a scholarly organizer and administrator. In the Harvard history department he helped create the Center for the Study of the History of Liberty in America, and directed it from 1958 to 1967; he also chaired the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History from 1965 to 1973. From 1962 to 1966 he was a top official of the United States Board of Foreign Scholarships, which awards Fulbright scholarships. He served on the board of overseers of
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...
, and was a trustee of the New York Public Library. He was Harvard's chief librarian from 1979 to 1984 and acting director of the
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
in 1972. In 1972–73 Handlin was the
Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–194 ...
at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
.


Positions


Immigration

Among Handlin's many important contributions was his pioneering work on immigration to America. In his Pulitzer Prize–winning book ''The Uprooted'' (1951), he opens with the famous declaration: "Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants ''were'' American history." In the process, Handlin laid the ground for study of immigration by the succeeding generation of historians, even though many of them would dispute his immigrant archetype of a peasant guided primarily by religious conviction, having no familiarity with wage work or urban settings, and having experienced migration first and foremost as alienation from family, community, and tradition. Handlin was one of the most prolific and influential American historians of the 20th century. As an American historian and educator he was noted for his in depth examination of American immigration history, ethnic history, and social history. His dissertation (1941) was published as his first book ''Boston's Immigrants, 1790–1865: A Study in Acculturation'' (1941). The book was highly regarded for its innovative research on sociological concepts and census data. In 1941 it won the prestigious John H. Dunning Prize from the
American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
as outstanding historical work published by a young scholar. The ''American Journal of Sociology'' described it as "the first historical case study of the impact of immigrants upon a particular society and the adjustment of the immigrants to that society. The writer has opened a new field for historical research and has also made a significant contribution to the literature of race and culture contacts." In 1947, he and his first wife Mary Flug Handlin published ''Commonwealth: A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774-1861'', which revealed for the first time the importance of political action in the development of the US free enterprise system. By the late 1950s, Oscar Handlin was publishing a book nearly every year, covering the fields of civil rights, liberty, ethnicity, urban history, the history of education, foreign affairs, migration, biography, adolescence, even a book of poetry. Sometimes he wrote collaboratively with his first wife Mary Flug Handlin and, after her 1976 death, with his second wife Lilian Bombach Handlin, whom he married in 1977. In the 1960s, Handlin published 11 books, wrote a monthly column for ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', directed the Center for the Study of Liberty in America, helped manage a commercial television station in Boston, chaired a board that oversaw Fulbright Scholarship awards, all in addition to his teaching duties at Harvard. From 1979 to 1983 he was director of the
Harvard University Library Harvard Library is the umbrella organization for Harvard University's libraries and services. It is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic library and largest private library in the world. Its collection ...
. He also edited a 42-volume collection of books on subjects relating to immigration and ethnicity, ''The American Immigration Collection'' (1969). During the next three decades, Handlin published 12 more books, many on the subject of liberty, and edited at least 20 biographies. He continued his work with immigrants with ''From the Outer World'' (1997), which collected the travel accounts of visitors to the United States from non-European countries. "He reoriented the whole picture of the American story from the view that America was built on the spirit of the Wild West, to the idea that we are a nation of immigrants." ( James Grossman)


American slavery

Oscar Handlin argued that racism was a by-product of slavery, and that the main focus was on the fact that slaves, like indentured servants, were regarded as inferior because of their status, not necessarily because of their race.


Civil Rights Movement

In 1964, Handlin published ''Fire Bell in the Night: The Crisis in Civil Rights'', which criticized white supremacists and suburban liberals, but also criticized leftists for their Communist-inspired solutions such as quotas, school busing, and affirmative action, writing: "Preferential treatment demands a departure from the ideal which judges individuals by their own merits rather than by their affiliations."


Left and Right

In March 1961, Handlin signed an ACLU-organized petition of scholars demanding that the
House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HUAC) cease operations. In 1961, Handlin published ''The Distortion of America'', his critique of the attractions of Communism. The 1996 second edition covers
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, China, and
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
. "The study of the human past persuades me that, despite the frequent risks of failure, man has the capacity to make order and find purpose in the world in which he lives when he uses the power of his reason to do so." His long-time colleague Bernard Bailyn noted Handlin's commitment to providing a historical perspective on policy issues: In 1979, Handlin published ''Truth in History'', which criticized New Left historians and the corruption of American universities with faddishness, hiring quotas, overspecialization and fragmentation in history studies, and deficiencies in graduate training.


The Vietnam War

In December 1967, Handlin was one of 14 anti-Communist American scholars who co-wrote a report for the Freedom House Public Affairs Institute, which argued that disaster would strike if the US withdrew from Vietnam. In 1988, Handlin, John Silber, et al. founded the conservative
National Association of Scholars The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American non-profit politically conservative advocacy organization, with a particular interest in education. It opposes a perceived political correctness on college campuses and supports a return ...
.


Bibliography

* ''Boston's Immigrants, 1790–1865'' (1941; rev. ed. 1959) * ''Commonwealth: A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774-1861'' (1947, together with his first wife Mary Flug Handlin; rev. ed. 1987) * ''The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People'' (1951, 2nd enlarged ed. 1973) * ''Adventure in Freedom; 300 Years of Jewish Life in America'' (1954) * ''Chance or Destiny: Turning Points in American History'' (1955), Little, Brown, & Co. * ''Race and Nationality in American Life'' (1957) * ''Readings in American History'' (1957) * ''Al Smith and His America'' (Jan. 1, 1958) * ''The Newcomers: Negroes and Puerto Ricans in a Changing Metropolis'' (1959) * ''The Distortion of America'' (1961, 2nd ed. 1996) * ''The Dimensions of Liberty'' (1961, with Mary Flug Handlin) * ''The Americans: A New History of the People of the United States'' (1963) * ''A Continuing Task: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1914—1964'' (1964) * ''Fire Bell in the Night: The Crisis in Civil Rights'' (1964) * ''Children of the Uprooted'' (1966) * ''The Popular Sources of Political Authority: Documents on the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780'' (1966) * ''The American Immigration Collection'' (42 vols.) (1969) * ''The American College and American Culture'' (1970) * ''Statue of Liberty'' (1971) * ''A Pictorial History of Immigration'' (1972) * ''Occasions for Love, and Other Essays at Recollection (Poetry, 1977) * ''Truth In History'' (1979) * ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'' (1981, with Stephan Thernstrom and Anne Orlov) * ''Liberty in America: From 1600 to the Present'' (4 vols.) (1986-1994, with Lilian Handlin); includes ''Liberty and Power, 1600-1760'' (1986), ''Liberty in Expansion, 1760-1850'' (Aug. 1989), ''Liberty in Peril, 1850-1920'' (1992), ''Liberty and Equality, 1920-1994'' (1994) * "A Career at Harvard" in ''The American Scholar'', Vol. 65 (Winter 1996). * ''From the Outer World'' (1997, with Lilian Handlin)


About Handlin

* Anbinder, Tyler. "Boston's Immigrants and the Making of American Immigration History," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 19-25. * Bailyn, Bernard. "Oscar Handlin," ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' (2013) 157#2 pp: 243-247 * Bukowczyk, John J. "Oscar Handlin's America," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (Spring 2013) 32#3 pp 7-18; special issue devoted to Handlin. * Bushman, Richard L. et al., eds. ''Uprooted Americans: Essays to Honor Oscar Handlin'' (1979) * Diner, Hasia. "Oscar Handlin: A Jewish Historian," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 53-61 * Gerber, David A. "The Uprooted Would Never Have Been Written If Oscar Handlin Had Taken His Own, Latter-Day Advice," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 68–77 * Kraut, Alan M. "Oscar Handlin and the Idea That We Are a Nation of Immigrants," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 26-36 * Ngai, Mae M. "Oscar Handlin and Immigration Policy Reform in the 1950s and 1960s," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 62-67 * Reed, Touré F. "Oscar Handlin and the Problem of Ethnic Pluralism and African American Civil Rights," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 37-45 * Rothman, David J. "The Uprooted: Thirty Years Later," ''Reviews in American History'' 10 (September 1982): 311–1
in JSTOR
* Stave, Bruce, "A Conversation with Oscar Handlin," in ''The Making of Urban History'' (1977) * Thomas, Lorrin. "Oscar Handlin, The Newcomers: Negroes and Puerto Ricans in a Changing Metropolis," ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' (2013) 32#3 pp 46-52 * Ueda, Reed. "Immigration and the moral criticism of American history: The vision of Oscar Handlin," ''Canadian Review of American Studies,'' 1990, Vol. 21 Issue 2, pp 183–202 * Vecoli, Rudolph J. "Contadini in Chicago: A Critique of The Uprooted," ''Journal of American History'' 5 (December 1964): 404–17, critique of Handli
in JSTOR
* Whitfield, Stephen J, "Handlin's History," ''American Jewish History'', Vol. 70, (December 1980)


References


Further reading

* Diner, Hasia. "Oscar Handlin: A Jewish Historian." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 32.3 (2013): 53-61
online
* Jones, Maldwyn A. "Oscar Handlin" in Marcus Cunliffe and Robin Winks, eds, ''Pastmasters: Some essays on American historians'' (1969) pp 239-77. * Kraut, Alan M. "Oscar Handlin and" the Idea That We Are a Nation of Immigrants"." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 32.3 (2013): 26-36
online
* Ngai, Mae M. "Oscar Handlin and immigration policy reform in the 1950s and 1960s." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 32.3 (2013): 62-67
online
* Reed, Touré F. "Oscar Handlin and the problem of ethnic pluralism and African American civil rights." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 32.3 (2013): 37-45
online
* Thomas, Lorrin. "Oscar Handlin, The Newcomers: Negroes and Puerto Ricans in a Changing Metropolis." ''Journal of American Ethnic History'' 32.3 (2013): 46-52
online
* Ueda, Reed. "Immigration and the moral criticism of American history: The vision of Oscar Handlin." ''Canadian Review of American Studies'' 21.2 (1990): 183–202. {{DEFAULTSORT:Handlin, Oscar 1915 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Brooklyn College alumni Brooklyn College faculty Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History Harvard Extension School faculty Harvard University alumni Historians from New York (state) Historians of slavery Historians of the United States Jewish American historians Pulitzer Prize for History winners Members of the American Philosophical Society 21st-century American Jews