Brown, Irene Quenzler 1938-

views updated

BROWN, Irene Quenzler 1938-

PERSONAL:

Born April 26, 1938, in Lindau, Germany; married, 1962; children: three. Education: University of Washington, B.A. (history), 1961; Harvard University, M.A., 1962, Ph.D., (French history), 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Home—20 Utley Rd., Hampton, CT 06247. Office—Human Development and Family Relations, School of Family Studies U-2058, University of Connecticut, 348 Mansfield Rd., Storrs, CT 06269-2058. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian and educator. University of Hartford, Hartford, CT, lecturer, 1976-77, assistant professor of history, 1978; University of Connecticut, Storrs, director of women's studies program, 1979-85, assistant professor, 1985-86, associate professor of human development and family relations with joint appointment with department of history, 1987-2003, associate director of honors program, 1992-2002. Member, American Council of Learned Societies, 1983-84; Connecticut Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History, 1983—; and Connecticut Campus Compact steering committee, 1998-2002.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa, 1961.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1961; Fulbright scholar, 1964-66; Radcliffe Institute scholar, 1970-71; Brown University, Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women, associate fellow, 1983-84.

WRITINGS:

(With Richard D. Brown) The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America, Belknap Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Contributor of articles and reviews to Journal of Family History, Common-Place, and History of Education Quarterly. Contributor to books, including Encyclopedia of Education, 1971; Good Reading. A Guide for Serious Readers, edited by Arthur Waldhorn and others, 1985; and Episcopal Women. Gender, Spirituality, and Commitment in an American Mainline Denomination, edited by Catherine M. Prelinger, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1992. Author of academic papers and conference presentations.

SIDELIGHTS:

Historian and professor Irene Quenzler Brown has contributed her research to numerous chapters in books, articles in journals, and papers for conference presentations. Her areas of concentration include American and European history of the family, history of women, and the history of friendship in Europe and America from 1650 to 1850.

The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America, written with Richard D. Brown, delves into the politics, morals, class struggle, and family dynamic at play in Lenox, Massachusetts circa 1805-06. The authors cover the trial of Ephraim Wheeler, a failed farmer of questionable character who was charged with raping his thirteen-year-old daughter. Often the only record of those who did not own property would be criminal records, but Wheeler also relayed his life story to a reporter, which, in addition to the trial report, rounds out this true story.

The details surrounding this trial are unique for the time. First, Wheeler's wife helped her daughter with her case. Secondly, Wheeler was sentenced to be hanged. Though rape was considered as serious of a crime as murder, it rarely was considered a capital offense, and a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct usually was issued instead. No one in the area had been hanged for rape in twenty-five years. Some surrounding the case felt this death sentence was unjust, especially because the victim was not examined by proper authorities and noncorroborative evidence was used to convict him. One hundred and three towns-people petitioned for Wheeler's pardon, including his wife and daughter. The authors felt the same, and Michael F. Russo concluded in Library Journal, "The insertion … of the authors' own opinion of the injustice they feel was done to Wheeler seems out of place.… However, this is a very worthy treatment of an important and timeless topic." The timelessness of the topic is demonstrated by the community's hesitation to apply capital punishment where it had not been used in twenty-five years, similar to today's debates about the death penalty.

The Browns employ the micro-history method in which everyday life conveys larger ideas of early American society. Malcolm Greenshields wrote in History Review of New Books, "the authors show considerable skill in moving their analysis from the microcosm of one failed career to the world surrounding it."