Stephen Nissenbaum

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Stephen Willner Nissenbaum (* 1941 ) is an American cultural historian and emeritus professor of history. His research focus is on American history. His best-known works include Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft , which he published with Paul Boyer in 1974, and The Battle for Christmas , which was first published in 1996.

Life

Stephen Nissenbaum graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in 1961 . He received his master's degree from Columbia University in 1963 . In 1968 he received a PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin . His dissertation is entitled Careful love: Sylvester Graham and the emergence of Victorian sexual theory in America, 1830-1840 .

After receiving his doctorate, he taught at the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst , where he worked as a professor before retiring in 2004.

From 1989 to 1990 he was the James Pinckney Harrison Professor of History at the College of William & Mary . In addition, from 1998 to 1999 he was awarded the professorship for the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

Nissenbaum was a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities , the American Council of Learned Societies , Harvard's Charles Warren Center, and the American Antiquarian Society . In the Massachusetts Fondation for the Humanities (the state agency of the National Endowment for the Humanities ) he worked in the field of humanities as a member (1985–1992) and chairman (1987–1989). He was also a historical advisor for a variety of film productions.

Reviews

Salem Possessed

Salem Possessed is a case study in witch research. The subject of investigation is the village of Salem , Massachusetts , where witch trials took place in 1962 .

For this study, Nissenbaum and Boyer mapped the properties of the Salem villagers. The information on this they took from manuscripts which were kept in the church of Danvers . They also consulted documents, court records, and diaries to describe the social and economic characteristics of the community members in Salem. In addition, local records were created about the fractionalism of the self-sufficient and wealthy farmers, artisans, mill owners and innkeepers, which they then analyzed. The result was a detailed, economic and geographical pattern of Salem and its people.

In science it is perceived as a work that brought new knowledge in witch research. Nissenbaum and Boyer drew a large number of unpublished source material into their work, which served to reconstruct the social relationships and everyday life of the residents of Salem. This was seen as an asset to social research.

Reviews

Salem Possessed , however, was also controversially discussed. Some complained about the lack of evidence of specific aspects in the work. In particular, the psychological arguments and the assumed effects with regard to socio-economic social change came into the sights of some critics. The representativeness of the social origin of witchcraft was also questioned. Carol Karlsen would also have hoped to shed light on the reasons why the protagonists were all women.

It sounds consistently positive with Robert P. Kelleher . According to him, the book provides convincing arguments and explanations in connection with the witch trials in Salem. The authors would show where social and economic change is leading and how this can manifest itself in social and religious constraints, said Kelleher.

It is also said that Boyer and Nissenbaum's book, despite the criticism, is well worth reading, is brilliant at exposing the problems, and is an example of the imaginative exploitation of local records. In particular, the seven maps and six diagrams included in the book were valued and described as "a remarkably rewarding experience".

The book is of local historical relevance, but could also serve as a model methodological study for social science. This sets a new, excellent standard for community studies in America. István Szijártó describes the work as a micro-history with a pronounced socio - historical character. Boyer and Nissenbaum's microscopic examination amounts to an economic explanation. In their work, the authors dealt with exceptional cases and not with the normal case. According to Szijárto, this is characteristic of Anglo-Saxon micro-history, which often deals with specific cases. However, general and overall historical findings from these are mostly disregarded.

The Battle for Christmas

The book deals with the origins and development of Christmas customs and traditions in America . It shows how early Christmas celebrations in the 17th and 18th centuries, which people used as an opportunity for misconduct and drinking, turned into private family celebrations in the 19th century.

To support his arguments, Nissenbaum collected a wide range of source material, including from magazines, letters, newspapers and children's literature. For example, he examined the structure and appearance of gift books to infer attitudes towards Christmas gifts.

Reviews

The paradox of the book, which sets out Christmas , known as the feast of love, as a struggle, definitely draws attention and is not a story of Christmas as Americans celebrated in the 19th century . It is well documented, writes James Hennesey, offers a secular picture of the transformation of the Christmas season in the 19th century, but it is also somewhat scattered and episodic. The detailed episodes realized for this would serve the purpose of bringing out Nissenbaum's arguments, continues James Hennesey. Leigh Eric Schmidt thinks something similar : Nissenbaum would manage to take up a lot of space for himself with his very appealing depictions, so that his polished narrative would shine and the analysis would sparkle.

Firth Haring Fabend notes that the topic of Christmas in the Old South, about the rituals of slave society, would probably be better off in a trade journal . And Leigh Eric Schmidt criticizes the lack of pre-revolutionary analysis on the subject of New Year's gifts.

It was also noted that Nissenbaum skilfully excludes the ecclesiastical aspects of Christmas from his work.

The Battle for Christmas conveys a rather negative image of the meaning of Christmas and ends with a somewhat dark epilogue . Leigh Eric Schmidt thinks it would support the skeptics of the faith and provide them with even more material. John L. Brooke has no doubts that the book, along with literature about the Christmas season, will also occupy a prominent place in the debate about celebrations in public and private life.

Awards

plant Award year
Stephen Nissenbaum: The Battle for Christmas . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1996. Finalist Pulitzer Prize for History 1997
Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum: Salem Possessed. The Social Origins of Witchcraft . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1974. Finalist National Book Award for History 1975
Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum: Salem Possessed. The Social Origins of Witchcraft . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1974. Winner American Historical Association's John H. Dunning Prize 1974

Fonts

  • Stephen Nissenbaum: Behind the Christmas Tree. The Surprising Story of a German Abolitionist Radical and America's Favorite Evergreen . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2014, ISBN 978-1-101-91151-8 .
  • Edward L. Ayers, Patricia Nelson Limerick, Peter S. Onuf, Stephen Nissenbaum: All over the Map. Rethinking American Regions . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1996, ISBN 0-8018-5206-4 .
  • Stephen Nissenbaum: The Battle for Christmas . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1996, ISBN 0-679-41223-9 .
  • Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum: Salem-village witchcraft. A documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England . Northeastern University Press, Boston 1993, ISBN 1-55553-164-4 .
  • Stephen Nissenbaum: Sex, diet, and debility in Jacksonian America. Sylvester Graham and Health Reform . In: Contributions in Medical History . tape 4 . Greenwood, Westport, Connecticut 1980, ISBN 978-0-313-21415-8 .
  • Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum: The Salem Witchcraft Papers. Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692 . Da Capo Press, New York 1977.
  • Paul S. Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum: Salem Possessed. The Social Origins of Witchcraft . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1974, ISBN 978-0-674-78526-7 .
  • Stephen Nissenbaum: Careful love. Sylvester Graham and the Emergence of Victorian Sexual Theory in America, 1830-1840 . Thesis, University of Wisconsin 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Distingguished Chair in American Studies at Humboldt University for American cultural historians. Retrieved July 29, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Stephen Nissenbaum. Retrieved July 29, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Stephen Willner Nissenbaum: Careful love - Sylvester Graham and the emergence of Victorian sexual theory in America, 1830-1840 . 1968.
  4. ↑ a b Stephen Nissenbaum. Penguin Random House. Retrieved July 29, 2019 (American English).
  5. ↑ Distingguished Chair in American Studies at Humboldt University for American cultural historians. Retrieved July 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ 1980s Shiftig Gears. In: Mass Humanities. Retrieved July 29, 2019 (American English).
  7. ↑ a b D. A. Tomasic: Review of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . In: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . tape 421 , 1975, ISSN  0002-7162 , pp. 176-176 , JSTOR : 1040902 .
  8. ^ A b Paul Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum: "Salem Possessed" in Retrospect . In: The William and Mary Quarterly . tape 65 , no. 3 , 2008, ISSN  0043-5597 , p. 503-534 , doi : 10.2307 / 25096812 , JSTOR : 25096812 .
  9. ^ A b c d Robert P. Kelleher: Review of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . In: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion . tape 18 , no. 3 , 1979, ISSN  0021-8294 , pp. 326-326 , doi : 10.2307 / 1385660 , JSTOR : 1385660 .
  10. ^ A b c d e Langdon G. Wright: Review of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . In: New York History . tape 56 , no. 4 , 1975, ISSN  0146-437X , pp. 469-470 , JSTOR : 23169354 .
  11. ^ A b Carol Karlsen: Review of Salem Possessed . In: Signs . tape 3 , no. 3 , 1978, ISSN  0097-9740 , p. 703-704 , JSTOR : 3173184 .
  12. ^ A b c T. H. Breen: Review of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . In: The William and Mary Quarterly . tape 32 , no. 1 , 1975, ISSN  0043-5597 , pp. 137-139 , doi : 10.2307 / 1922603 , JSTOR : 1922603 .
  13. ^ A b Philip J. Greven: Salem Probed . In: Reviews in American History . tape 2 , no. 4 , 1974, ISSN  0048-7511 , pp. 513-518 , doi : 10.2307 / 2701067 , JSTOR : 2701067 .
  14. ↑ The History Teacher, Vol. 9, No. 3 (May, 1976), p. 514 Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  15. ^ Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, István M. Szijárto: What is Microhistory ?, Theory and practice . Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London / New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-415-69208-3 , pp. 46-47, 53 .
  16. ^ A b c Susan R. Williams: Review of The Battle for Christmas . In: The Journal of Southern History . tape 64 , no. 2 , 1998, ISSN  0022-4642 , pp. 337-338 , doi : 10.2307 / 2587950 , JSTOR : 2587950 .
  17. ↑ David Yosifon: Review of The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Christmas That Shows How It Was Transformed from an Unruly Carnival Season into the Quintessential American Family Holiday . In: Journal of Social History . tape 32 , no. 1 , 1998, ISSN  0022-4529 , pp. 231-233 , JSTOR : 3789612 .
  18. ^ A b c Firth Haring Fabend: Review of The Battle for Christmas . In: New York History . tape 78 , no. 2 , 1997, ISSN  0146-437X , p. 229-230 , JSTOR : 23181856 .
  19. ↑ a b c James Hennesey: Review of The Battle for Christmas . In: The American Historical Review . tape 103 , no. 2 , 1998, ISSN  0002-8762 , p. 580-581 , doi : 10.2307 / 2649894 , JSTOR : 2649894 .
  20. ^ A b c d Leigh Eric Schmidt: Review of The Battle for Christmas . In: The Journal of American History . tape 84 , no. 2 , 1997, ISSN  0021-8723 , p. 618-618 , doi : 10.2307 / 2952581 , JSTOR : 2952581 .
  21. ^ John L. Brooke: Review of The Battle for Christmas . In: The William and Mary Quarterly . tape 55 , no. 1 , 1998, ISSN  0043-5597 , p. 192-194 , doi : 10.2307 / 2674352 , JSTOR : 2674352 .
  22. ↑ prize-winners-by-year / 1997. Retrieved August 1, 2019 .
  23. ^ Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft. In: National Book Foundation. Retrieved August 1, 2019 (American English).
  24. ^ John H. Dunning Prize Recipients | AHA. Retrieved August 1, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Nissenbaum, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nissenbaum, Stephen Willner (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cultural historian and professor of history
DATE OF BIRTH 1941