Linda K. Kerber

Last updated
Linda K. Kerber
Born (1940-01-23) January 23, 1940 (age 81)
Other namesLinda Kaufman Kerber
Spouse(s)
Richard Kerber
(m. 1960)
Academic background
Alma mater
Doctoral advisor Richard Hofstadter
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-discipline
School or tradition Feminism
Institutions University of Iowa

Linda Kaufman Kerber (born January 23, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York) [1] is an American feminist, a political and intellectual historian, and educator who specializes in the history and development of the democratic mind in America, and the history of women in America.

Contents

Early life and education

The daughter of Harry Hagman and Dorothy Haber Kaufman, Kerber graduated from Forest Hills High School in Queens, New York, and married Richard Kerber in 1960. She received a BA from Barnard College (1960), an MA from New York University (1961), and her PhD from Columbia University (1968) under the supervision of Richard Hofstadter. [2]

Career

Kerber joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1971, and is currently the May Brodbeck Professor in Liberal Arts & Sciences, and also lecturer in the College of Law.

Kerber published her first book, Federalists in Dissent: Imagery and Ideology in Jeffersonian America, in 1970. [3] One of the first historians to interpret the history of the early United through the lens of women's history, she published Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America in 1980. In this path breaking book, Kerber introduced the concept of "Republican Motherhood."

In 1998, Kerber published No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship, a political history of women and the law that spans the history of the United States from the early Republic to the late twentieth century. She also published essays and books on the feminism and history and on women's intellectual history.

From the beginning of her career, inspired by the women's movement, Kerber played an active role in enhancing the status of women in the historical profession. An early member of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, she began to attend meetings of the newly formed Coordinating Committee for Women in the Historical Profession. In the early 1970s, when the American Historical Association appointed a Committee on Women Historians to provide recommendations as to how to improve the professional positions of women, she was among its first members and also served as its chair. [4]

Kerber served as the president of the American Studies Association in 1988, the Organization of American Historians in 1996–97, and the American Historical Association in 2006. She was the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford University in 2006–2007, delivering the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Memorial Lecture at Oxford on November 16, 2006. [5]

She has received fellowships from, among others, the National Endowment for the Humanities three times, the National Humanities Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is an elected member and serves on the Council of the American Philosophical Society, [6] a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, [7] and a Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. [8] Kerber serves on the international advisory board of the feminist academic journal Signs. [9]

Works

Related Research Articles

Jeffersonian democracy American political persuasion of the 1790s until the 1820s

Jeffersonian democracy, named after its advocate Thomas Jefferson, was one of two dominant political outlooks and movements in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. The Jeffersonians were deeply committed to American republicanism, which meant opposition to what they considered to be artificial aristocracy, opposition to corruption, and insistence on virtue, with a priority for the "yeoman farmer", "planters", and the "plain folk". They were antagonistic to the aristocratic elitism of merchants, bankers, and manufacturers, distrusted factory workers, and were on the watch for supporters of the Westminster system.

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 provides leadership for the discipline by protecting academic freedom, developing professional standards, supporting scholarship and innovative teaching, and helping to sustain and enhance the work of historians. It publishes The American Historical Review four times a year, with scholarly articles and book reviews. The AHA is the major organization for historians working in the United States, while the Organization of American Historians is the major organization for historians who study and teach about the United States.

Republicanism in the United States Political philosophy of individual liberty and representative democracy

Republicanism in the United States is the use of the concept of republic, or the political ideals associated with it in the United States.

Republican motherhood

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Peter S. Onuf

Peter S. Onuf is an American historian and professor known for his work on U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and Federalism. In 1989, he was named the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of the University of Virginia, a chair he held until retiring in 2012. The chair's previous occupants included Jefferson biographers Dumas Malone and Merrill D. Peterson; he was succeeded by Alan Taylor.

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References

  1. www.historians.org
  2. "Alice Kessler-Harris, Linda K. Kerber Biography, American Historical Association, 2007" . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  3. Kerber, Linda K. (1970). Linda Kerber, Federalists in Dissent: Imagery and Ideology in Jeffersonian America. ISBN   9780801405600.
  4. "Alice Kessler-Harris, Linda K. Kerber Biography, American Historical Association, 2007" . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  5. Kerber, Linda K. "The Stateless as the Citizen's Other: A View from the United States". American Historical Association. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
  6. "Distinguished UI Historian Elected to Council of American Philosophical Society" . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  7. "American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member: Linda Kerber" . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  8. Linda K. Kerber, Department of History, Iowa University Archived 2009-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society: Editorial Board" . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  10. "AHA Awards and Prizes | AHA".
  11. "AHA Awards and Prizes | AHA".
Academic offices
Preceded by
Kathryn Kish Sklar
Harmsworth Professor of American History
2006
Succeeded by
Lizabeth Cohen
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by
Lois Banner
President of the American Studies Association
1988–1989
Succeeded by
Allen F. Davis
Preceded by
Michael Kammen
President of the
Organization of American Historians

1996–1997
Succeeded by
George M. Fredrickson
Preceded by
James J. Sheehan
President of the
American Historical Association

2006
Succeeded by
Barbara Weinstein