Green, Harvey 1946–

views updated

Green, Harvey 1946–

PERSONAL:

Born September 15, 1946, in Buffalo, NY; son of Herman (a farmer and laboratory technician) and Bessie (a homemaker) Green; married Susan Williams (a historian), June 21, 1980. Education: University of Rochester, B.A., 1968; Rutgers University, M.A., 1970, Ph.D., 1976.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New Ipswich, NH. Office—249 Meserve Hall, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, consultant, and writer. International Congress of Historical Sciences, New Brunswick, NJ, administrative assistant to the executive director, 1973-74; Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ, instructor in history, 1973-74; Essex County College, Newark, NJ, instructor in history, 1974-75; Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, chief historian, 1976-89, deputy director for research and interpretation, 1983-89; Northeastern University, Boston, MA, associate professor and coordinator of public history programs, 1989-93, professor of history, 1993—; University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, adjunct associate professor of history, 1983-89. Consultant to various historical organizations and historical consultant for film documentaries. Member of board of overseers, Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, NH, 1991-96; member of board of corporators, Canterbury Shaker Museum, Canterbury, NH, 1994-99.

MEMBER:

American Association for State and Local History (member of council, 1987-91), American Studies Association, Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, New England American Studies Association (member of council, 1991-94), Gallery Association of New York State (member of board of directors, 1989-84; president, 1984), Landmark Society of Western New York (member of board of directors, 1985-89).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rutgers University fellow, 1973-74; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1975-76; Kellogg Foundation fellow, Smithsonian Institution, 1986; Fulbright Lecturing Award, University of Turku, Finland, 1995; Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson fellow, American Antiquarian Society, 1997; Winterthur Museum and Library Research fellow, 1998; Bicentennial Professor of American Studies (Fulbright Distinguished Lecturing Award), University of Helsinki, Finland, 1999-2000.

WRITINGS:

The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1983, reprinted, University of Arkansas Press (Fayetteville, AR), 2003.

Fit for America: Health, Fitness, Sport, and American Society, 1830-1940, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1986.

The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945, Harper-Collins (New York, NY), 1992.

Wood: Craft, Culture, History, Viking (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Points of View: The Stereograph in America: A Cultural History, edited by Edward W. Earle, Visual Studies Workshop Press (Rochester, NY), 1975.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gathering material for his book The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America, historian Harvey Green analyzed thousands of advertisements, diaries, advice columns and manuals, labor-saving gadgets, kitchen tools, and furniture. The result, according to Elizabeth Crow of the Washington Post Book World, is a "fascinating, lavishly illustrated, and very disturbing inventory of the means by which ‘woman's place’ was defined in the years between 1870 and 1910 and by which it has been maintained for the past century." The book, wrote Crow, "is most grimly compelling" when Green "catalogues the dark side of Victorian housewifery." Crow also noted: "In explaining our past, [Green] has provided insight into our present, especially in his analysis of the economics of a sexually stratified society." A reviewer for Time similarly praised The Light of the Home, writing: "Delightfully illustrated with pictures of artifacts from the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum," the book "illuminates the deadening burden that male supremacy imposed during the 19th century." The reviewer also noted that "Green's hindsight is an education."

In Fit for America: Health, Fitness, Sport, and American Society, 1830-1940 Green examines another aspect of American life since the Victorian era. "Fit for America investigates the changing ideas, realities, and solutions for problems of health and fitness over the course of a century," wrote Washington Post contributor John Riddle, who noted Green's attention to detail. "The author researched catalogs, trade journals, diaries, medical books, athletic instruction manuals, advice books and household guides," Riddle wrote. "By putting them all together, he provides the reader with an understanding of just how the health and fitness craze has evolved."

Green suggests that health products and practices have maintained their popularity because, to Americans at least, success in the pursuit of health and fitness can compensate for failure in other areas. William Bennett explained in the New York Times Book Review: "In America's free-enterprise society, most people, most of the time, are failures." Bennett went on to note: "The pursuit of physical (or mental) perfection, or the nearest thing to it, can be a way of salvaging self-esteem in a culture that offers few other consolations to those who have put out their best effort and still lost the game."

The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945 chronicles the many changes in U.S. society occurring during the early-to-mid-twentieth century that created a sense of uncertainty for many Americans. The author explores everything from the country's changing labor movement and work ethic to developments in medicine and Americans' evolving attitudes concerning sex and marriage. In a review of the book for Publishers Weekly, a contributor noted that the author's "voice is calm and detached, his material is rich and colorful; his approach is original."

In Wood: Craft, Culture, History Green provides a history of wood and its uses over the centuries, as well as an in-depth look at the qualities and appearances of different woods. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Wood an "informed, lively and genial account" and also noted that the book is "certain to please the legions of woodworking aficionados." Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, commented of the book that "Green's work richly satisfies curiosity about the subject."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of Wood: Craft, Culture, History, p. 13.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2006, review of Wood, p. 767.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 1, 1989, review of Fit for America: Health, Fitness, Sport, and American Society, 1830-1940, p. 10.

Ms., August, 1986, Patti Hagan, review of Fit for America, p. 74.

New York Review of Books, April 12, 1984, Diane Johnson, review of The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America, p. 23.

New York Times Book Review, March 23, 1986, William Bennett, review of Fit for America, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, June 22, 1992, review of The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945, p. 50.

Time, July 4, 1983, review of The Light of the Home, p. 70.

Washington Post, November 11, 1986, John Riddle, review of Fit for America, p. WH20.

Washington Post Book World, August 21, 1983, Elizabeth Crow, review of The Light of the Home, p. 11; April 20, 1986, review of Fit for America, p. 3.