HAREVEN, Tamara K(ern) 1937-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born May 10, 1937, in Cernauti, Rumania (now Chernivsti, Ukraine); died of kidney disease October 18, 2002, in Newark, DE. Historian, educator, and author. Hareven was a social historian who was interested in how family structures change through time. She was a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she earned her B.A. in 1960, followed by a master's degree in 1962 from the University of Cincinnati and a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1965. After completing her degrees, she was an assistant professor of history at Dalhousie University from 1965 to 1967, and then a faculty member at Harvard University. Beginning in 1969, she spent the next twenty years at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she taught history and was a research associate at the Center for Population Studies. In 1988 she was hired as Unidel Professor of Family Studies and History at the University of Delaware and held joint appointments in public policy and urban affairs. Hareven's main research interest was in how the course of history has changed families both in America and other countries, especially with regard to the effects of industrialization. Her research helped to disprove the idealized image many Americans have of families in the past where three generations lived happily together in one home. Instead, Hareven showed, it was rare before modern times for people to live long enough to see their grandchildren born. She also wrote about how people commonly rented out rooms in their homes to lodgers until increased economic prosperity and a greater desire for privacy in America largely ended that practice, thus contributing to social isolation. In addition to her studies of American families, Hareven also did research into family dynamics in such countries as Japan, China, France, and Austria, focusing on how knowledge of trades and other skills were passed down from generation to generation. Among her books regarding family structures are Family Time and Industrial Time (1982), Family Time and Industrial Time: The Relationships between the Family and Work in a New England Industrial Community (1993), and Families, History, and Social Change: Life Course and Cross-cultural Perspectives (2000). Hareven also edited numerous books in the field of social history, was the founding editor of the Journal of Family History, and was founder and coeditor of The History of the Family: An International Quarterly.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2002, p. B25.

New York Times, November 6, 2002, p. C13.