1 | Name: | Dr. Gertrude Himmelfarb | |
Institution: | Graduate School, City University of New York | ||
Year Elected: | 1986 | ||
Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
Subdivision: | 303. History Since 1715 | ||
Residency: | Resident | ||
Living? : | Deceased | ||
Birth Date: | 1922 | ||
Death Date: | December 30, 2019 | ||
Gertrude Himmelfarb was distinguished professor of history and later professor emeritus of history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. For many years she was chair of the doctoral program in history. Dr. Himmelfarb received her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1950. She also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary and at Girton College, Cambridge. A leader in the field of 19th century British intellectual history, Dr. Himmelfarb wrote extensively on Victorian England and on contemporary society and culture, earning a reputation as a conservative cultural critic. Her publications included Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (1959), On Liberty and Liberalism (1974), Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians (1991), and The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values (1995). She also edited a collection of essays by Irving Kristol, entitled The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 (2011). She was the recipient of many honorary degrees and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Society of American Humanities. She served on the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities and on the editorial boards of the American Historical Review, the American Scholar and other journals. Known for her great erudition and meticulous scholarship, Dr. Himmelfarb was a gifted writer and thinker who expressed her strong opinions with force and clarity. Gertrude Himmelfarb died December 30, 2019 in Washington, DC at the age of 97. |