Tamara Hareven was an American educator and writer. She was a social historian of the family and its place in contemporary society.
Background
Tamara Hareven was born on May 20, 1937, in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. She was the daughter of Saul Kern and Mary Kern. When Tamara was four, her family left their home and lived in an internment camp in Ukraine. They survived the Holocaust and then relocated to Palestine.
Education
Tamara Hareven was a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in 1960, followed by a master's degree in 1962 from the University of Cincinnati and a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1965.
Career
Tamara Hareven was a social historian who was interested in how family structures change through time. After completing her degrees, she was an assistant professor of history at Dalhousie University from 1965 to 1967, and then a faculty member at Harvard University. Beginning in 1969, Tamara spent the next twenty years at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she taught history and was a research associate at the Center for Population Studies. In 1988 Tamara was hired as Unidel Professor of Family Studies and History at the University of Delaware and held joint appointments in public policy and urban affairs.
Tamara Hareven's research interest was in how the course of history has changed families both in America and other countries. In addition to her studies of American families, Hareven also researched family dynamics in such countries as Japan, China, France, and Austria, focusing on how knowledge of trades and other skills passed down from generation to generation.
Also, Tamara Hareven was a writer. Among her books regarding family structures are Family Time and Industrial Time, Family Time and Industrial Time: The Relationships between the Family and Work in a New England Industrial Community, and Families, History, and Social Change: Life Course and Cross-cultural Perspectives. Tamara also edited numerous books in the field of social history, was a founder of the Journal of Family History in 1975 and served as an editor for about twenty years. Besides, Tamara was a founder and co-editor of The History of the Family: An International Quarterly in 1995.
Views
Tamara Hareven's substantive research interest was in how the course of history has changed families both in America and other countries, especially about the effects of industrialization. Her research helped to disprove the idealized image many Americans have of families in the past where three generations lived happily together in one home. Instead, Tamara showed that it was rare before modern times for people to live long enough to see their grandchildren born. She also wrote about how people commonly rented out rooms in their homes to lodgers until increased economic prosperity, and a greater desire for privacy in America mainly ended that practice, thus contributing to social isolation.
Besides, Tamara Hareven's work focused on the family's adaptation to the ups and downs of industrial society, like that of New England. To that end, she interviewed generations of families about their work and home lives. Her interest lay in events like the closing of factories in New England or the social impact of World War II. Tamara gauged how personal responsibilities, such as caring for aging parents, affected people's lives.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Barbara H. Settles: "One of the ironies of her life is that it cut short before she could experience the older years she so carefully studied and saw as the contemporary shift in demography. She enjoyed both the outdoor beaut, especially of beaches and mountains and the graphic arts. She often chose to combine her work with the opportunity to enjoy esthetic experiences and was probably as thrilled by the way her books printed and illustrated as she was by their content."