Oscar Handlin - Biography

Biography

Handlin was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of three children of Russian-Jewish immigrants. His mother, the former, Ida Yanowitz, came to the United States in 1904 and worked in the garment industry. His father, Joseph, came to America in 1913 after attending a commercial college in the Ukraine and later being stationed in Harbin, China as a soldier during the Russo-Japanese war. Handlin's parents were passionately devoted to literature and the life of the mind. Their experience of religious persecution in Czarist Russia made them fiercely devoted to democracy and social justice (Handlin was a proto-"red diaper baby.") The couple owned a grocery store, the success of which along with real estate investments enabled them to send their children — Oscar, Nathan and Sarah — to Harvard.

In 1934, Handlin graduated from Brooklyn College and received a M.A. from Harvard University one year later. Between 1936 and 1938, he taught history at Brooklyn College. In 1940, he received his PhD from Harvard, where he studied with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. During his time as a graduate student at Harvard, he was denied the position of Vice President in the Henry Adams Club for being Jewish. Along with Dr. Schlesinger, he was among the first Jewish scholars appointed to full professorship at Harvard.

His work centered around the topic of immigrants in the U.S., and their influence on culture. Handlin taught at Harvard from 1939 to 1986.

Handlin co-authored several books with his first wife, historian Mary Flug. The couple had three children, Joanna Handlin Smith, who later became an expert in Chinese history and literature; David Handlin, an architect; and Ruth Handlin Manley, a social worker. Mary Flug Handlin died in 1976. Oscar Handlin later married historian Lilian Bombach. A man of few words outside the lecture room, Handlin made every word count. He was possessed of a sardonic wit honed by his love of the novels of James Branch Cabell, the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan and the cartoons of Al Capp who was a family friend.

He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.