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Oscar Handlin (born September 29, 1915, Brooklyn) is a U.S. historian.

In 1934, Handlin graduated at Brooklyn College and received a M.A. from Harvard University one year later. Between 1936 and 1938, he taught history at Brooklyn College^[1]. In 1940, he received his PhD from Harvard.^[2]

His work centered around the topic of immigrants in the U.S., and their influence on culture^[2],

Handlin won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1952 with The Uprooted^[3].

Contentions

American slavery

Oscar Handlin has 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.^[4]

Works

• Commonwealth (1947, together with his wife, Mary Flug Handlin)
• The Uprooted (1951, 2d enl. ed. 1973)
• Boston's Immigrants, 1790–1865 (1941, rev. and enl. ed. 1959)
• Adventure in Freedom; 300 Years of Jewish Life in America (1954)
• Race and Nationality in American Life (1957)
• The Newcomers—Negroes and Puerto Ricans in a Changing Metropolis (1959)
• The Dimensions of Liberty (1961)

References