Deborah Cohen
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Deborah_Cohen_at_Politics_and_Prose_%28crop%29.jpg/220px-Deborah_Cohen_at_Politics_and_Prose_%28crop%29.jpg)
Deborah Anne Cohen (born 1968)[1] is an American historian of modern Europe and Britain. She is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History at Northwestern University and interim director of Northwestern's Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.[2][note 1]
Education and career
Cohen is of Ukrainian Jewish descent and grew up the daughter of a lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky. Her interest in British history stems from her father's interest in British modernist literature, and her feminist approach to history was influenced by Harvard University professors Susan Pedersen, Alexandra Owen, and Olwen Hufton.[3] She graduated summa cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1990, and completed her Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Berkeley in 1996. After working as a faculty member in the history departments of American University from 1997 to 2002 and Brown University from 2002 to 2010, she joined Northwestern University as Ritzma Professor in 2010.[4]
She is a member of the Editorial Board for Past & Present.[5]
Books
Cohen's first book was The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914–1939 (University of California Press, 2001). In it, she contrasted the generous treatment by the Weimar Republic of veterans returning from World War I, and the lingering resentment of those veterans toward the Republic, with the more meager support by Britain for its veterans and their loyalty to their state. Rather than attributing these differences to the different outcomes of the war for the two countries, she credits Britain's encouragement of private philanthropy towards veterans for their happiness.[6]
Her second book, Household Gods: The British and their Possessions (Yale University Press, 2006), studies the rise of the middle class in Britain from the Victorian era to the present, through the mirror of their household possessions. Her themes include the descent of popular tastes from the individuality of the Victorians into mass conformity, and (triggered by the 1895 libel and indecency trials of Oscar Wilde) a perceived linkage between aesthetic taste and homosexuality that led British men to retreat from home decor, leaving it to women.[7]
Family Secrets: Shame and Privacy in Modern Britain (Viking Penguin and Oxford University Press, 2013), her third book, concerns British families and the ways they handled issues that might be considered shameful, including birth defects, mixed-race and illegitimate children, adoption, divorce, homosexuality, and abusive family members. As with Household Gods she mainly focuses on the middle class. Cohen studies the way that the balance between privacy and secrecy has been transformed by developments including the enforced openness of mid-19th-century divorce courts, the early 20th-century legalization of adoption and abortion, and the changing sizes and composition of family units.[8][9]
Recognition
Cohen's book The War Come Home won the Allan Sharlin Memorial Book Award of the Social Science History Association. Her book Household Gods won the Morris D. Forkosch Prize of the American Historical Association, was co-winner of the Albion Book Prize of the North American Conference on British Studies, and was shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize of the English PEN. Her book Family Secrets also won the Forkosch Prize, and was the winner of the Stansky Prize of the North American Conference on British Studies.[4]
Cohen was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018.[4][10]
Notes
- ^ Not to be confused with Deborah Cohen, historian of the US and Mexico at the University of Missouri–St. Louis
References
- ^ Birth date from Library of Congress catalog entry, retrieved 2019-12-03
- ^ Deborah Cohen, Northwestern University Department of History, retrieved December 3, 2019
- ^ Wrottesley, Catriona (2013), "Meeting the author: An interview with Deborah Cohen", Couple and Family Psychoanalysis, 3 (2): 244–250
- ^ a b c Curriculum vitae (PDF), Northwestern University Department of History, retrieved December 3, 2019
- ^ "About us".
- ^ Reviews of The War Come Home:
- Biess, Frank (Fall 2002), German Politics & Society, 20 (3): 112–115, JSTOR 23740755
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Wilson, Trevor (November 2002), The English Historical Review, 117 (474): 1294–1295, doi:10.1093/ehr/117.474.1294, JSTOR 3490831
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Hong, Young-sun (2003), Central European History, 36 (2): 295–297, doi:10.1017/S000893890000683X, JSTOR 4547311, S2CID 144848608
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Rachamimov, Alon (May 2003), "The social benefits of private philanthropy", H-Net Reviews
- Anderson, J. P. (Spring 2003), Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 35 (1): 165–166, doi:10.2307/4054566, JSTOR 4054566
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Kienitz, Sabine (August 2003), International Review of Social History, 48 (2): 283–286, doi:10.1017/S0020859003051046, JSTOR 44582762
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: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Berger, Stefan (October 2003), History, 88 (4): 713–714, JSTOR 24427088
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: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Grayzel, Susan R. (Winter 2003), The Historian, 65 (6): 1449–1450, JSTOR 24452660
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: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Reznick, Jeffrey S. (Winter 2003), Journal of Social History, 37 (2): 551–553, doi:10.1353/jsh.2003.0192, JSTOR 3790431, S2CID 142852695
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Rieger, Bernhard (March 2004), The Historical Journal, 47 (1): 196–198, doi:10.1017/S0018246X03223633, JSTOR 4091553, S2CID 162891233
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Frie, Ewald (2005), VSWG: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 92 (1): 76–77, JSTOR 20741471
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Biess, Frank (Fall 2002), German Politics & Society, 20 (3): 112–115, JSTOR 23740755
- ^ Reviews of Household Gods:
- Macintyre, Ben (September 16, 2006), "How the British Discovered their House Style", The Times
- Seymour, Miranda (October 1, 2006), "Lares et Penates", Literary Review
- O’Connell, John (November 1, 2006), "Book of the Week", Time Out
- Wulf, Andrea (November 3, 2006), "When Priests Chose the Curtains", The Guardian
- Colquhoun, Kate (November 4, 2006), "House Pride of Britain", Daily Telegraph
- Powers, Katharine (November 19, 2006), "When Things Are in the Saddle", Boston Globe
- Mishan, Ligaya (January 14, 2007), "British Interiors", Sunday Book Review, The New York Times
- Barker, Paul (February 9, 2007), "By the Yard", Times Literary Supplement
- Thompson, Damian (March 1, 2007), "Review", The World of Interiors
- Storey, John (March 16, 2007), "The Relentless Rise of Coffee-Table Cults", Times Higher Education Supplement
- Gillis, John R. (June 2007), The American Historical Review, 112 (3): 928–929, doi:10.1086/ahr.112.3.928, JSTOR 40006807
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Wealleans, Anne (June 2007), The Journal of Architecture, vol. 12 (3 ed.), pp. 344–346, doi:10.1080/13602360701470166, S2CID 219642299
- Hilton, Matthew (Summer 2007), Victorian Studies, 49 (4): 721–724, doi:10.2979/VIC.2007.49.4.721, JSTOR 4626392, S2CID 141926118
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Brewis, Monica (Fall 2007), Journal of Design History, 20 (3): 265–267, doi:10.1093/jdh/epm019, JSTOR 4540364
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Ashmore, Sonia (October 2007), Journal of British Studies, 46 (4): 969–970, doi:10.1086/522738, JSTOR 10.1086/522738
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Hayford, Alison (2008), "Review", Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 33 (1)
- Kriegel, Lara (Fall 2008), The Business History Review, 82 (3): 654–656, doi:10.1017/S0007680500082866, JSTOR 40538524, S2CID 155686036
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Boyd, Kelly (Fall 2008), "Review", Journal of Victorian Culture, 13 (2): 356–361, doi:10.3366/E1355550208000490
- Baer, Marc (Winter 2008), "Review", Fides et Historia, 40 (1): 126–128
- Haupt, Heinz‐Gerhard (June 2009), The Journal of Modern History, 81 (2): 409–410, doi:10.1086/605154, JSTOR 10.1086/605154
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Sloboda, Stacey (July 2009), Design and Culture, 1 (2): 261–263, doi:10.2752/175470709x12450644305871, S2CID 143608235
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Morrison, Richard (October 17, 2009), "Review", The Times
- Clark, Lindsay A. (November 2010), Interiors, 1 (3): 291–293, doi:10.2752/204191210x12875837764291, S2CID 164272154
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: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- ^ Houlbrook, Matt; Igo, Sarah; Langhamer, Claire; Vincent, David (2014), "Roundtable: Family Secrets by Deborah Cohen", History Workshop
- ^ Reviews of Family Secrets:
- Watts, Viv (January 11, 2013), "Review", The Daily Express
- Hughes, Kathryn (January 12, 2013), "Society books", The Guardian
- Harman, Claire (January 17, 2013), "Review", The Evening Standard
- Hitchings, Henry (January 19, 2013), "Behind closed doors", The Financial Times
- Randall, Lee (January 19, 2013), "Review", The Scotsman
- Vickers, Salley (January 26, 2013), "Society Books", The Observer
- Flanders, Judith (January 27, 2013), "Book of the Week", The Sunday Telegraph
- Purvis, June (January 31, 2013), "Book of the Week", Times Higher Education Supplement
- Bourke, Joanna (February 1, 2013), "Review", BBC History Magazine
- Wilson, Frances (February 2, 2013), "Review", The Daily Telegraph
- Ridley, Jane (February 3, 2013), "Secrets and ties", Lead book review, The Spectator
- Keating, Sara (March 17, 2013), "Review", The Sunday Business Post
- Angier, Carole (April 17, 2013), "Review", The Independent
- Thane, Pat (April 26, 2013), "Review", The Times Literary Supplement
- Alexander, Sally (May 1, 2013), "Review", History Today
- Stansky, Peter (October 2013), Journal of British Studies, 52 (4): 1088–1090, doi:10.1017/jbr.2013.155, JSTOR 24700920
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Jain, S. Lochlann (October 10, 2013), "The history of secrets", Public Books
- Preston, Shale (Winter 2013), Victorian Periodicals Review, 46 (4): 575–576, doi:10.1353/vpr.2013.0037, JSTOR 43663213, S2CID 144898837
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Davis, Angela (April 2014), Social History, 39 (2): 296–298, doi:10.1080/03071022.2014.896520, S2CID 143755887
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Vincent, David (April 2014), The American Historical Review, 119 (2): 602–603, doi:10.1093/ahr/119.2.602
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Clark, Anna (Fall 2014), Victorian Studies, 57 (1): 131–133, doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.57.1.131, JSTOR 10.2979/victorianstudies.57.1.131
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Cocks, H. G. (April 2015), Journal of Social History, 48 (4): 969–971, doi:10.1093/jsh/shu051
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Kriegel, Lara (December 2015), The Journal of Modern History, 87 (4): 958–960, doi:10.1086/683777, JSTOR 10.1086/683777
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Tucker, Jennifer (December 2015), History: Reviews of New Books, 44 (1): 19–20, doi:10.1080/03612759.2016.1084816, S2CID 148385621
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Bingham, Adrian (December 2015), "Review" (PDF), Journal of Family History, 41 (1): 99–100, doi:10.1177/0363199015621101, S2CID 152135290
- ^ "Deborah A. Cohen", Member directory, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, retrieved December 4, 2019
External links
- Home page