Professor of History
Director, Center for Austrian Studies
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
314 Social Sciences Building,
267 19th Avenue S.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel: 612-624-9811, Fax: 612-626-9004
History
3775 - History of the European
Jews
(Spring 2008)
GARY B. COHEN was educated at the University of Southern California (B.A., 1970) and Princeton University (M.A., 1972; Ph.D., 1975). He was a member of the University of Oklahoma history faculty from 1976 to 2001, where he taught a range of courses on modern European social and political history and East-Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In August 2001, he retired from the University of Oklahoma faculty after twenty-five years of service and joined the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, as director of the Center for Austrian Studies, executive editor of The Austrian History Yearbook, and professor of history.
Prof. Cohen's research has
focused
on social development, ethnic group relations, and education in modern
Austria and the Czech lands. His publications include two books, The
Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861-1914
(Princeton
University Press, 1981; second edition, revised, Purdue University
Press, 2006) and Education and Middle-Class Society in
Imperial
Austria, 1848-1918 (Purdue University Press, 1996); articles in The
Journal of Modern History, Central European History, The
Austrian
History Yearbook, The East European Quarterly, Jewish History, and
The
Social Science Quarterly; and numerous book chapters.
In
2000, Karolinum–The Charles University Press published a Czech
translation
of his study on the German minority of Prague under the title, Němci
v Praze, 1861-1914; in early 2006, Purdue University Press
published in paperback a revised second edition of this work in English.
Prof. Cohen's scholarship has
earned
national and international recognition. Grants from the American
Philosophical
Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, the International
Research
and Exchanges Board (IREX), the United States Department of Education,
and the National Endowment for the Humanities have supported his
research.
He served on the national selection committee for East European
exchange
fellowships of the International Research and Exchanges Board in
1984-86,
and during the late 1980s was the only participant from the United
States
in the European Science Foundation's project on "Governments and
Non-Dominant
Ethnic Groups in Europe, 1850-1940." Prof. Cohen served as the
executive
secretary
of the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History in 2000 and 2001 and
is presently a member of advisory boards for the Austrian Academy of
Sciences and the Collegiuim Carolinum in Munich.
B. A., University of Southern California (history) summa cum laude,
1970
M. A., Princeton University (history), 1972
Ph.D., Princeton University (history), 1975
ACADEMIC SPECIALIZATION:
Modern European Social History
Eastern Europe, 1740-1939
Social and Political History of Austria and Germany, 1790-1939
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:
Assistant in Instruction, Princeton University, Spring 1974
Instructor, Princeton University, 1974-1976
Assistant Professor of History, University of Oklahoma, 1976-1982
Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma, 1982-1995
Professor of History, University of Oklahoma, 1995-2001 (Secondary
appointments:
Director of Russian Studies, 1984-1996;
Professor of Women's Studies)
Director, International Academic Programs, University of Oklahoma,
1996-2001
Professor Emeritus of History, University of Oklahoma, 2001-
Director, Center for Austrian Studies (and Executive Editor,
Austrian History Yearbook), and
Professor of History, University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2001-
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague,
1861-1914
(Princeton University Press, 1981); published in Czech
translation as Němci
v Praze, 1861-1914 (Karolinum--The Charles University Press,
Prague, 2000); revised, second
edition (W. Lafayette, Indiana:
Purdue University Press, 2006)
Education and Middle-Class Society in Imperial Austria, 1848-1918
(Purdue
University Press, 1996)
Edited book:
Zbigniew Bochniarz and Gary B. Cohen, eds., The Environment and Sustainable
Development in the New Central
Europe (Berghahn Books,
2006)
Articles and Chapters:
"Jews in German Society: Prague, 1860-1914," Central European History 10(1977): 28-54; [reprinted in David Bronsen, ed., Jews and Germans from 1860 to 1933: The Problematic Symbiosis (Heidelberg, 1979), pp. 306-337].
"Recent Research on Czech Nation-Building," The Journal of Modern History 51(December 1979): 760-772.
"Ethnicity and Urban Population Growth: The Decline of the Prague Germans," Studies in East European Social History, Keith Hitchins, ed., 2 (1981): 3-26.
"Liberal Associations and Central European Urban Society, 1840-1890," The Maryland Historian 12, no. 1 (198l): 1-11.
"Ethnic Persistence and Change: Concepts and Models for Historical Research," Social Science Quarterly 65, no. 4 (December 1984): 1029-1042.
"Jews in German Liberal Politics: Prague, 1860-1914," Jewish History 1, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 55-74.
"Society and Culture in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest in the Late Nineteenth Century," The East European Quarterly 20, no. 4, (January 1987): 467-484 [Revised version: "The Social Structure of Prague, Vienna, and Budapest in the Late Nineteenth Century," in György Ránki, ed., Hungary and European Civilization (Budapest, 1989), pp. 181-99].
"Die Studenten der Wiener Universität, 1860 bis 1900: Ein soziales und geographisches Profil," in Richard Georg Plaschka and Karlheinz Mack, eds., Wegenetz europäischen Geistes, II: Universitäten und Studenten (Vienna, 1987), pp. 290-316.
"Education and Czech Social Structure in the Late Nineteenth Century," in Hans Lemberg, K. Litsch, R. G. Plaschka, and G. Ránki, eds., Bildungsgeschichte, Bevölkerungsgeschichte, Gesellschaftsgeschichte in den böhmischen Ländern und in Europa: Festschrift für Jan Havránek (Vienna and Munich, l988), pp. 32-45.
"Jews among Vienna's Educated Middle-Class Elements at the Turn of the Century," in Yehuda Don and Victor Karady, eds., A Social and Economic History of Central European Jewry (New Brunswick, N.J., 1990), pp. 179-89.
"Education, Social Mobility, and the Austrian Jews 1860-1910," in Victor Karady and Wolfgang Mitter, eds., Bildungswesen und Sozialstruktur in Mitteleuropa im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [Studien und Dokumentation zur vergleichenden Bildungsforschung, v. 42] (Cologne and Vienna, 1990), pp. 141-61.
"European Urban Ethnic Minorities and Economic Development (1850-1940): Some Comparative Observations," in Proceedings of the Tenth International Economic History Congress, Leuven, August 1990, Session B-5: Ethnic Minority Groups in Town and Countryside and their Effects on Economic Development (1850-1940) (Leuven, 1990), pp. 125-36.
"The German Minority of Prague, 1850-1918," in Max Engman, ed., Ethnic Identity in Urban Europe (Aldershot and New York, 1992), pp. 267-93.
"Organisational Patterns of the Urban Ethnic Groups," in M. Engman, ed., Ethnic Identity in Urban Europe (1992), pp. 407-18.
"Ideals and Reality in the Austrian Universities, 1850-1914," in Michael S. Roth, ed., Rediscovering History: Politics, Culture and the Psyche (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1994), pp. 83-101, 454-58.
"The Politics of Access to Advanced Education in Late Imperial Austria," in Russian in Avstro-Vengriia: Opyt mnogonatsional'nogo gosudarstva, ed. T. M. Islamov and A. I. Miller (Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, l995), pp. 155-199 (also available in English as Working Paper in Austrian Studies, no. 93-6, Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota, Sept. 1993, 42 pp.).
"Deutsche, Juden und Tschechen in Prag: das Sozialleben des Alltags, 1890-1924," Allemands, Juifs et Tcheques à Prague--Deutsche, Juden und Tschechen in Prag, 1890-1924, edited by Maurice Godé, J. Le Rider, F. Mayer (Montpellier: Université Paul-Valéry, 1996, pp. 55-69 [Published in Czech as "Němci, židé a češi v Praze: Společenský život všedního dne 1890-1914," Dějiny a současnost, 20, no. 4 (1998): 29-35].
"Neither Absolutism nor Anarchy: New Narratives on Society and
Government in Late Imperial Austria," Austrian History Yearbook,
29, pt. 1 (1998): 37-61.
"Společnost, politický život a vláda v pozdně
imperiálním Rakousku: zamyslení nad novou
syntézou" [“Society, Politics, and Government in Late Imperial
Austria: Thoughts on a New Synthesis”], Český časopis historický
102 (2004), no. 4: 745-65.
“Jan Havránek: učitel mimořádných qvalit” [“Jan
Havránek: Mentor extraordinaire”], in Magister noster. Studies dedicated
to Prof. PhDr. Jan Havránek, Csc., in memoriam, edited by
Michal Svatoš, Luboš Velek, and Alice Velková (Prague: Karolinum
– The Charles University Press, 2005), pp. 31-36.
PAPERS READ:
"Jews in German Society: The Case of Prague," symposium at Washington University, St. Louis, April 1976
"Czech Nation-Building, 1861-1914: Fragmentation as the Price of Success," American Historical Association, 1977 Annual Meeting, Dallas
"Group Solidarity and Social Cleavage: German Associations in Prague, 1860-1890," American Historical Association, 1980 Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
"Ethnic Persistence: Some Comparative and Historical Reflections," Southwest Social Science Association Annual Meeting, Houston, March 1983
"The Students of the Vienna University, 1860-1900: A Social and Geographical Profile," International Conference on "Universities and Students," Austrian Institute for Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Vienna, September 1983
"The Jewish Role in Prague's German Politics, 1861-1914," American Historical Association, 1984 Annual Meeting, Chicago, December 1984
"Prague, Vienna, and Budapest in the Late Nineteenth Century: A Caveat on Comparisons," International Conference on "Hungary and European Civilization," Indiana University, Bloomington, April 1985
"Jews in German Liberal Politics: Prague," and a comment, International Conference on "Issues of Contemporary Central European Jewry," Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, France, August 1985
"Secondary and Higher Education for Czechs in the Late Nineteenth Century," Central Slavic Studies Conference, Oklahoma State University, October 1985
"The German Minority of Prague in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries," Meeting of the Urban Sub-group of the European Science Foundation Project, "Comparative Studies on Governments and Non-Dominant Ethnic Groups," Trieste, Italy, April 1986
"Education and Czech Social Structure in the Late Nineteenth Century," International Workshop on "Socio-historical Aspects of Modern Central European Schooling," Institute for the Humanities, Vienna, Austria, October 1987
"Education, Social Mobility, and the Austrian Jews, 1860-1910, Association for Jewish Studies, Annual Meeting, Boston," December 1987
"The Social Structure of University Students in Austria and Germany, 1860-1910," German Studies Association Annual Conference, Milwaukee, October 1989
"Nationality and Education: Czechs, Germans, and Jews in the Bohemian Lands, 1860-1910," meeting of the Czech-German Joint Historical Commission, Bad Homburg, Germany, March 1990
"European Urban Ethnic Minorities and Economic Development, 1850-1940: Some Comparative Observations," International Economic History Congress, Leuven, Belgium, August 1990
"The Social Origins of the Czech Educated Elements, 1860-1910," American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, National Convention, Washington, D. C., October 1990
"Human Rights and National Interests: The Moral Dilemmas of Modern Czech Nationalism," conference on "Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Wake of Humanism," Scripps College and The Claremont Graduate Humanities Center, Claremont, California, April 1993
"The Politics of Access to Advanced Education in Late Imperial Austria," International conference on "Austria-Hungary: Problems of a Multinational State," Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, June 1993.
"Deutsche, Juden und Tschechen in Prag: Das Sozialleben des Alltags, 1890-1914," International Colloquium, "Allemands, Juifs et Tchèques à Prague," Université Paul Valery, Montpellier, France, December 1994
"Ambiguous Identities: German Minorities in East-central Europe, 1848-1945," Eighteenth International Congress of Historical Sciences, Montreal, Canada, August 1995
"The Advance of Modern Political Life in Imperial Austria, 1890-1914," American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Annual Meeting, Boston, November 1996
"Educational Development and the Erosion of German Privilege in the Austrian Half of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1918," Annual Symposium on Habsburg History, Woodrow Wilson Center/George Washington University, Washington, D.C., April 1997
“Czech Historiography since 1989,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 2001
“Society, Politics, and Government in Late Imperial Austria:
Thoughts
on a New Synthesis,” Historical Commission of the Austrian Academy of
Sciences,
Vienna, June 20, 2003
"The
Habsburg Monarchy and its Nationalities:
A Reassessment of Popular Loyalties and
Political Conflict, 1867‑1914,” for the International Research
Workshop: “Borderlands: Ethnicity,
Identity, and Violence in the
Shatter zone of Empiressince
1848,”
"Our
laws, our taxes, our schools, and our administration –– Everyday
notions of citizenship
in Imperial Austria," conference on “Internationalizing the History of
Eastern Europe,” Weatherhead Center, Harvard University, May 2007; and
final
conference, Borderlands Project, at the Herder Institute, Marburg,
Germany, May
2007
FELLOWSHIPS AND RESEARCH GRANTS:
Danforth Graduate Fellowship, 1970-1975
IREX Exchange Fellow to Czechoslovakia, 1972-1973
Shelby Cullom Davis Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in History, Princeton
University, Fall 1978
ACLS Grant-in-Aid, Summer 1981
Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Grant (U. S. Department of
Education),
January-July
1982
IREX Exchange Fellow to Czechoslovakia, January-May 1982
American Philosophical Society Research Travel Grant, Fall 1983
National Endowment for the Humanities Travel to Collections Grant,
May-July 1985
University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Summer
Fellowship, Summer 1985
University of Oklahoma Senior Faculty Research Fellowship, Summer 1990
American Philosophical Society Research Grant, Summer 1996
IREX Exchange Fellow to the Czech Republic, May-July 1997
McKnight Summer Research Fellowship and Faculty Summer Research
Fellowship,
University of Minnesota,
June-August 2002
COURSES TAUGHT:
Assisted at Princeton:
History 211: Europe, 1450-1750
212: Europe since 1750
357: The Modernization of Russia
365: Twentieth-Century Europe
369: Modern Britain
Lectured or directed at Oklahoma:
History 1233: Europe since 1815
3120: European Jews from Ghetto to Modernity
3173: The Emergence of Modern European Society, 1815-1870
3183: Europe in the Age of Imperialism, 1870-1914
3763: Eastern Europe since 1938
3833: Nation-Building in East-Central Europe, 1790-1939
3943: European Fascism
4973: Work, Women, and the Family in Modern Europe (Senior
Seminar)
4973: Contemporary Poland (Senior Seminar)
6200: Graduate Reading Seminar: Europe since 1815
6200: Seminar: Eastern Europe in the Twentieth
Century
(overseas advanced program)
Honors 3993: Colloquium: The Fall of East European
Communism
Non-credit short course: "European Jews from Ghetto
to Auschwitz"
Lectured or Directed at Minnesota:
History 3747: Habsburg Central Europe,
1740-1918
3244: History of Eastern Europe
5777: Proseminar: Habsburg Central
Europe,
1740-1918
5900: Proseminar: Central and Eastern
Europe in the 20th Century
UNIVERSITY AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:
Member, University of Oklahoma Committee for Social Science Teacher Certification,