Roger Lane is 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 ...
, and Professor Emeritus at
Haverford College.
He was born on January 17 1934 to Eileen O’Connor and
Alfred Baker Lewis
Alfred Baker Lewis (1897 – 1980) was an American lawyer, union organizer, socialist, and civil rights activist. He was served on the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1939 until his death and as its trea ...
, who gave him an invented surname before marrying in 1940. Raised in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
, he graduated from
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
(summa cum laude,
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
) in 1955. At
Columbia during 1955-6 he took a graduate history seminar with
Richard Hofstader
Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century.
Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. Rejecting his earlier historic ...
, then spent a year teaching and coaching athletics at
Brunswick School
Brunswick School is a private, college-preparatory school for boys in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1902 by George B. Carmichael.
History
Brunswick School was founded in 1902 by George B. Carmichael. The school is a ...
in Connecticut. From there he earned a PhD at
Harvard, as a student of the pioneering social historian
Oscar Handlin
Oscar Handlin (1915–2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigration ...
, before accepting a position at Haverford in 1963.
His study of ''Policing the City: Boston'', 1822-1885 (
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 ...
, 1967), was the first on the origins of urban police in America. A 1968 article in the Journal of Social History, "Urbanization and Criminal Violence in the 19th Century", challenged the then-conventional wisdom that crime naturally increases as cities grow. This earned an appointment to The President’s Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, which reprinted it. its depiction of the regimentation of life under the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
won the attention of
Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (), is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide ...
, the infamous “
Unabomber
Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (), is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide ...
,” who quoted it extensively in
his 1995 manifesto, giving Lane a small role in his identification and capture.
''Violent Death in the City: Suicide, Accident and Murder in 19th Century Philadelphia'', (
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 ...
, 1979), showed how the behavioral demands of school, office, and factory decreased the external manifestations of aggression, as murder, while increasing the internal, as suicide. ''Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia'', 1860-1900, (Harvard University Press, 1986) focused on how exclusion from factory and white collar jobs pushed many African Americans into dangerous criminal entrepreneurship; it won the prestigious
Bancroft Prize
The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas.
It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...
, from the Trustees of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, as one of that year’s best books in American History. ''William Dorsey’s'' ''Philadelphia and Ours: On the Past and Future of the Black City in America'', (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1991) showed how this effect blighted a promising post-Civil War Golden Age in what was then the biggest and best-educated African American community in the North. ''Murder in America: A History'' (
Ohio State University Press
The Ohio State University Press is the university press of Ohio State University. It was founded in 1957.
The OSU Press has published approximately 1700 books since its inception. The current director is Tony Sanfilippo, who had previously work ...
, 1997), traced its subject from medieval England into the late 20th Century.
Lane has won the
Lindback Award
The Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award is given out by the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation.
History
Christian Lindback was the president and owner of Abbotts Dairies. He was also a trustee of Bucknell University. His foundation e ...
and several other teaching awards; in 1987 the
Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Penns ...
named him one of the “Ten Top Profs” in the metropolitan area. A small college, Haverford allowed him to participate in intramural athletics and theater, and enabled him to explore courses beyond American History in the humanities, touching e.g. on The Bible, Shakespeare, and Freud. The college granted him an honorary degree after his retirement in 1999.
He has appeared in many television documentaries, on ethnic history, crime, policing, guns, and murder.
Lane’s two younger brothers, John Michael Lane and Stephen Lewis, have died. Marriage to Patricia Ann Hindle in 1955 produced two children, Margaret Mary and James Michael Lane, before their divorce in 1971. He married Marjorie Gail Merklin in 1974, and they together have a daughter, Joanna Lewis Lane.
Living in
Haverford, PA
Haverford is an unincorporated community located in both Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, approximately west of Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) ope ...
, he and Marjorie have been active in civic life, especially involving the local African American community. Other interests include reading, politics, sports, and music, lecturing on social history, and tutoring both children and adults.
Awards
* 1987
Bancroft Prize
The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas.
It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...
* 1992 Urban History Association's award.
Works
* ''Policing the City: Boston 1822-1885,'' Harvard University Press, (1967).
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References
External links
"Murder, Mayhem and Mystery: It's All Elemental, 'Dear Reader' in Roger Lane's New Book ", ''Haverford News''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Roger
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Haverford College faculty
Living people
Harvard University alumni
Yale University alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Bancroft Prize winners
American male non-fiction writers