Oscar Handlin
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Oscar Handlin (September 29, 1915 – September 20, 2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
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 fro ...
and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigration history in the 1950s. Handlin won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Uprooted'' (1951). Handlin's 1965 testimony before Congress was played an important role in passage of the
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, was a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The ...
that abolished the discriminatory immigration quota system. According to historian James Grossman, "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."


Biography

Handlin was born in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, 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 Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...
, China, as a soldier during the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
. Handlin's parents were passionately devoted to literature and the life of the mind. Their experience of religious persecution in Czarist Russia 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 Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
at age 15, graduating in 1934, then earning a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) 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. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degree from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
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 Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...
before reentering
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. 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 A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
, 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 Continuing education, continuing education School of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1910, it is o ...
. He was a staunch anti-Communist and
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
hawk in the 1960s. Handlin was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1999. He died at age 95 on September 20, 2011, in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
.


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 The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
scholarships. He served on the board of overseers of
Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
, and was a trustee of the
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
. He was Harvard's chief librarian from 1979 to 1984 and acting director of the
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
in 1972. In 1972–73 Handlin was the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
.


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, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...
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, 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 based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...
'', 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 The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
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 network of libraries and services at Harvard University, a private Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Library is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic librar ...
. 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.


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 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...
-organized petition of scholars demanding that the
House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...
(HUAC) cease operations. In 1961, Handlin published ''The Distortion of America'', his critique of the attractions of Communism. The 1996 second edition covers
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, and
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
. "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 The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
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 501(c)(3) non-profit politically conservative education advocacy organization. It advocates against multiculturalism, diversity policies, and against courses focused on race and gender i ...
.


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 Department of History 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 20th-century American Jews Handlin family