Wohl, Anthony S(tephen) 1937-

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WOHL, Anthony S(tephen) 1937-

PERSONAL:

Born March 28, 1937, in London, England; son of Peter (an electrical wholesaler) and Deborah (Zack) Wohl; married Judith Mayer (a teacher), May 31, 1964; children: Victoria, Gillian. Education: Jesus College, Cambridge, B.A. (with first class honors), 1958; Brown University, Ph.D., 1966. Hobbies and other interests: Classical music, gardening, photography, walking.

ADDRESSES:

Home—25 Bayview Rd., Ipswich, MA 01938. Office—Department of History, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian and educator. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, instructor, 1963-66, assistant professor, 1966-71, associate professor, 1971-77, professor of history, 1977-2001, professor emeritus, 2001—. Visiting lecturer, Victorian Studies Center, Leicester University; visiting professor, University of British Columbia; lecturer, London University; visiting research fellow, Bedford College, London University, 1983; member of resident faculty, Yale University, 1988 and 1991; visiting fellow, Australian National University, 1990. National Conference on British Studies, programme chairman, treasurer and executive board member, 1991-94. Project director, Monuments and Dust: The Culture of Victorian London (Web site).

MEMBER:

Royal Historical Society (fellow), Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Brown University Beneficial Foundation fellow, 1963.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and author of notes) The Bitter Cry of Outcast London, Humanities Press, 1970.

The Eternal Slum: Housing and Social Policy in Victorian London, Edward Arnold (London, England), 1977.

(Editor and contributor) The Victorian Family: Structure and Stresses, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1978.

Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian and Edwardian England, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.

(Editor) J. Hollingshead, Ragged London in 1861, J. M. Dent (London, England), 1986.

Contributor to books, including The History of Working-Class Housing, edited by S. D. Chapman, David and Charles (London, England), 1971, The Victorian City, edited by H. J. Dyos and M. Wolff, Routledge (London, England), 1973, and New Dictionary of National Biography. Contributor to periodicals, including International Review of History, Journal of British Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Albion, and Jewish History. Member of board of advisors, Victorian Studies; member of editorial board, Nineteenth Century Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Anthony S. Wohl is an historian who, in addition to his duties as professor of history at Vassar College, has focused on the lives of the working classes in nineteenth century England. His most well-known work, Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian and Edwardian England, uses statistics, medical reports, and other factual evidence to draw conclusions about the living conditions that resulted in higher rates of infant mortality, increased deaths due to diseases and epidemics, and lower life expectancies for member of England's lower economic classes. Citing the book as "a major work of synthesis" due to the wealth of source material studied by Wohl, Science contributor John M. Eyler praised the author of Endangered Lives for bringing "the perspectives and the skills of the social historian to the task of describing the health of the people, of explaining the collective actions Victorians took to protect public health, and of analyzing the motives for and the consequences of those actions. It is a very large order and he handles it well."