Gertrude Himmelfarb facts for kids

Gertrude Himmelfarb (born August 8, 1922 – died December 30, 2019) was an important American historian. She was also known as Bea Kristol. She was known for her conservative views on history. She wrote many books about the history of ideas, especially focusing on Great Britain and the Victorian era. She also wrote about modern society and culture.

Biography

Gertrude Himmelfarb was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents, Bertha and Max Himmelfarb, were from Russia.

She went to Brooklyn College and earned her first degree in 1942. Later, she received her doctorate degree from the University of Chicago in 1950. She also studied at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York.

In 1942, she married Irving Kristol. He was a very important figure in the neoconservatism movement, which is a political philosophy. They had two children, Elizabeth and William Kristol. William became a well-known political writer. Gertrude Himmelfarb kept her own last name. Their marriage was known for being very strong and intellectually connected.

Himmelfarb was involved in Jewish conservative groups for a long time. She was a professor at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She received many awards and honorary degrees for her work. In 1991, she gave the Jefferson Lecture, a very respected talk in the humanities. In 2004, she received the National Humanities Medal from the U.S. president. This is one of the highest honors for people in the humanities. She passed away on December 30, 2019, at 97 years old.

How She Studied History

Gertrude Himmelfarb was a strong supporter of traditional ways of studying history. She believed that history should focus on facts and objective truth.

Her book, The New History and the Old, published in 1987, criticized new ways of looking at history. She argued against ideas that tried to make history too "scientific" using numbers, or those that focused only on economic ideas. She also disagreed with approaches that ignored the ideas and beliefs of people from the past.

Himmelfarb also criticized historians who did not recognize "moral facts" in history. For example, she disagreed with a historian named A.J.P. Taylor. He wrote about Adolf Hitler as if he were a "normal" leader. Himmelfarb believed Hitler was a unique and powerful figure, like Napoleon, and that his actions had clear moral implications.

She strongly rejected the idea of "postmodernism" in history. This idea suggests that there is no objective truth about the past. Himmelfarb believed that historians should always try to find the truth, even if it's hard to reach completely. She said that postmodernism "denies even the ideal of truth."

Her Ideas

Himmelfarb was best known for her work on Victorian England. This was a period in British history from 1837 to 1901. However, she often connected this time to broader ideas.

For example, her book The Idea of Poverty looked at how thinkers like Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus influenced ideas about poverty. Her book Victorian Minds included thinkers from before and after the Victorian era. This showed how Victorian ideas had a wider impact.

In many of her writings, she showed that "Victorian values" were not just for that time. She called them "virtues." Today, the word "Victorian" sometimes means strict or old-fashioned. But Himmelfarb showed that these virtues were simple and important for everyone.

She explained that Victorian virtues included:

• Prudence (being careful and wise)
• Temperance (being moderate and self-controlled)
• Industriousness (working hard)
• Decency (being polite and proper)
• Responsibility (taking care of your duties)

She said these virtues were "common, everyday virtues, within the capacity of ordinary people." They were virtues for regular citizens, not just for heroes or saints. Himmelfarb believed these traditional values should be brought back into American public life.

Gordon Brown, a former Prime Minister of the Labour Party in the UK, greatly admired her work. He said he loved her focus on the history of ideas.

After she died, writer David Brooks called her "The Historian of Moral Revolution." This means she focused on how moral ideas changed history.

See also

In Spanish: Gertrude Himmelfarb para niños