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Oscar Handlin
Smith, Alfred E.
The Oxford Companion to United States History
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2001
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© The Oxford Companion to United States History 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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Smith, Alfred E. (1873–1944), governor of New York and Democratic presidential candidate. Smith was born on
New York City's Lower East Side. His father was of German and Italian background; his mother was Irish American. Forced by his father's death to quit school early, he supported his family by working in the Fulton Fish Market. Local leaders of New York City's Democratic organization, Tammany Hall got him a job with the Commissioner of Jurors. Elected to the state assembly in 1903 he served for twelve years, rising to become Speaker. He also cochaired the State Factory Investigating Commission, which was established in response to the
Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911. The commission sponsored numerous bills regulating factory work and established Smith as a champion of the working class.
Needing more income, Smith, now a father of five, became sheriff of New York County in 1915 and president of the New York City Board of Aldermen two years later. Nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor in 1918 he won easily, serving from 1919 to 1920, and again from 1923 to 1928. His strong legislative record as a progressive reformer expanded his political support. Though Smith lost the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's rancorous 1924 convention, he won in 1928, becoming the first Catholic to run for president on a major party ticket. A number of factors—Smith's religion, his stand against Prohibition, and eight years of Republican prosperity—led to his crushing loss to the Republican candidate, Herbert
Hoover. In New York, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt was narrowly elected governor, winning the post that Smith had vacated.
After losing the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination to Roosevelt, Smith did not seek office again. Embittered by Roosevelt's popularity, he opposed much of the
New Deal and even joined the conservative American Liberty League. He was an active Catholic layman and served as figurehead president of the
Empire State Building Corporation headed by John J. Raskob, a prominent Democrat. Popular with audiences and the press for his affability and oratorical skills, Al Smith remains one of New York's most beloved public figures.
See also
Democratic Party;
Irish Americans;
Progressive Era;
Roman Catholicism;
Temperance and Prohibition;
Twenties, The.
Bibliography
Oscar Handlin , Al Smith and His America, 1958.
Paula Eldot , Governor Alfred E. Smith: The Politician as Reformer, 1983.
Elisabeth Israels Perry
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That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession.
Magazine article from: The Nation; 2/6/1989; ; 700+ words
; ...ago, Harvard University historian Oscar Handlin recalled the "exhilaration" he...Association meeting. His colleagues, Handlin wrote in reverential tones, were...interpretation and points of view." Handlin may have thought that rigorous professional...
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Support for Israel; An American tradition.(OPED)
Newspaper article from: The Washington Times; 5/7/2002; 700+ words
; ...between 1815 and 1914. According to Oscar Handlin, the noted Harvard historian...entrepreneurs whose focus, writes Mr. Handlin, "was on the problem of getting...political action," wrote Mr. Handlin in a 1987 article in The National...
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Demonic images of the Jew in the nineteenth century United States.
Magazine article from: American Jewish History; 12/1/2001; ; 700+ words
; Fifty years ago the historian Oscar Handlin published a seminal article in this...during the nineteenth century. Handlin maintained that the prevailing temper...toward Jews since medieval times. Handlin reiterated his contentions in Commentary...
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Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900-1920.
Magazine article from: The Christian Century; 9/21/1994; ; 700+ words
; ...the influential Harvard historian Oscar Handlin published a sweeping study of the...American People. That book followed Handlin's first, more focused examination...A Study in Acculturalization. Handlin described the progressive disintegration...
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AMERICA'S HISTORY IS A STORY OF IMMIGRATION
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 11/29/1993; ; 700+ words
; ...America has been a country. In 1941, Oscar Handlin, a Harvard professor, wrote a...experience, "The Uprooted," in 1951, Handlin said, "Once I thought to write...tradition. In Boston in 1850, Handlin wrote, 27 languages were spoken...
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 "The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH)")
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'TEMPEST TOST' NEED NOT APPLY.(Editorial)(Column)
Newspaper article from: The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH); 6/13/2007; 700+ words
; ...economic. The late, great scholar Oscar Handlin once wrote that the history of immigration...his classic book, The Uprooted, Handlin detailed the losses, burdens and...upon all our human capacities. Handlin urged Americans not to forget the...
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The Fanatic: Philip Roth and Hanif Kureishi Confront Success1
Magazine article from: Comparative Literature; 4/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...Ellis; Reichman). In 1951, Oscar Handlin, in The Uprooted, imagined a world...experience of the Jewish migrant-and Handlin was the son of Jewish migrants...American history," according to Handlin. In 1950 the American-Jewish...
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An Interview with Samuel Hand: "Reel Life: The Early Years of the OHA/OHR".
Magazine article from: The Oral History Review; 6/22/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...biography of Louie Howe, but he had been a student of Oscar Handlin. Handlin had been called upon to do an analysis of the John...Kennedy Oral History Program. Rollins actually did the Handlin review, and Rollins was anxious that I attend this...
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Death of a salesman: deracination and its discontents *.
Magazine article from: American Jewish History; 3/1/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...famously a nation of immigrants. In Oscar Handlin's words, "the immigrants were...American Jewish drama reflects Handlin's insight. It is not primarily...alienation," the shock," that Handlin speaks of. Where in this new world...
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Making Americans
Newspaper article from: Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; 6/17/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...America's success. The late scholar Oscar Handlin once wrote that the "history of...In his book, "The Uprooted," Handlin detailed the losses, burdens and...upon all our human capacities." Handlin urged Americans not to "forget...
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Oscar Handlin
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
Oscar Handlin Pulitizer Prize winner Oscar Handlin (born 1915) ranks as one of the most prolific and influential...immigration history, ethnic history, and social history. Oscar Handlin was born on Sept. 29, 1915, in Brooklyn, New York City...
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Assimilation
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to United States History
...They also adopted Chicago concepts. The historian Oscar Handlin's The Uprooted (1951), for example, described...1963) and Rudolph J. Vecoli's 1964 critique of Handlin's The Uprooted . The decade's turbulent politics...
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Statue of Liberty
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to United States History
...Send these, the homeless, tempest‐tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Bibliography Oscar Handlin , Statue of Liberty , 1971. I.B. Penick , The Story of the Statue of Liberty , 1986. Leo Hershkowitz ; Updated...
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Smith, Alfred E.
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to United States History
...Irish Americans ; Progressive Era ; Roman Catholicism ; Temperance and Prohibition ; Twenties, The . Bibliography Oscar Handlin , Al Smith and His America , 1958. Paula Eldot , Governor Alfred E. Smith: The Politician as Reformer , 1983. Elisabeth...
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Immigration
Book article from: American Eras
...was the sheer poverty of its participants: “ no other contemporaneous migration, ” historian Oscar Handlin wrote in Boston ’ s Immigrants (1959), “ partook so fully of. . . poverty-stricken helplessness...
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