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Howard Sachar

{{short description|American historian (1928–2018)}}

{{infobox person

|name=Howard Sachar

|birth_name=Howard Morley Sachar

|birth_date={{birth date|1928|2|10}}

|birth_place=St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|2018|4|18|1928|2|10}}

|death_place=Kensington, Maryland, U.S.

|education=Swarthmore College
Harvard University (MA, PhD)

|occupation=Historian

|spouse=Eliana Steimatzky

|children=3

|father=Abram L. Sachar

|relatives=Edward J. Sachar (brother)
David B. Sachar (brother)

}}

Howard Morley Sachar (February 10, 1928 – April 18, 2018) was an American historian. He was Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the author of 16 books,{{cite web |url=http://thebrandeishoot.com/articles/6474 |title=All in the Family: Dr. Howard Sachar and the Jacob Hiatt Institute |last=Fuchs |first=Sam |date=11 September 2009 |access-date=31 January 2011 |publisher=Brandeis University}} as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, on the subjects of Middle Eastern and Modern European history. His writings, which have been published in six languages, are widely regarded as solid reference works.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-israeli-politics |title=What To Read On Israeli Politics |date=11 December 2009 |last=Benn |first=Aluf |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations|access-date=31 January 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.forward.com/articles/1774/ |title=Narrative History in the Grand Tradition |last=Kaufmann |first=David |date=16 December 2005 |access-date=31 January 2011 |work=The Jewish Daily Forward}}{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/books/review/04ZIPPERS.html |last=Zipperstein |first=Steven J. |title='A History of the Jews in the Modern World': The Best of Times? |work=The New York Times |date=4 September 2005 |access-date=31 January 2011}}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalpol00brow |url-access=registration |quote=howard sachar. |title=International Politics and the Middle East: Old rules, dangerous game |page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalpol00brow/page/290 290] |last= Brown|first=L. Carl |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=1-85043-000-4 |year=1984}}

Early, personal life and education

Howard Morley Sachar was born to historian and academic administrator Abram L. Sachar and his wife, Thelma Horwitz,{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/25/obituaries/dr-abram-l-sachar-historian-and-1st-brandeis-u-president-94.html |title=Dr. Abram L. Sachar, Historian And 1st Brandeis U. President, 94 |last=Lyons |first=Richard D. |date=25 July 1993 |access-date=31 January 2011 |work=The New York Times}} during his father's tenure as a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-28-ls-13625-story.html |title=BOOK REVIEW / HISTORY: A Poignant Celebration of a Rich Vein of Jewish History: FAREWELL ESPANA: The World of the Sephardim Remembered by Howard M. Sachar, Knopf, $30, 439 pages |last=Kirsch |first=Jonathan |date=28 December 1994 |work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=31 January 2011}} He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Champaign, Illinois. He was the eldest of three brothers; his brother Edward J. Sachar became a pioneering biological psychiatrist and David B. Sachar became a gastroenterologist.

Sachar completed his undergraduate education at Swarthmore College and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history at Harvard University.{{cite web |url=https://elliott.gwu.edu/howard-m-sachar |title=Emeritus Faculty: Howard M. Sachar |publisher=George Washington University |access-date=2 May 2018 |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728200325/https://elliott.gwu.edu/howard-m-sachar |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |last1=Silverman |first1=Ellie |title=Howard M. Sachar, GWU scholar and 'trailblazer' of Jewish history, dies at 90 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/howard-m-sachar-gwu-scholar-and-trailblazer-of-jewish-history-dies-at-90/2018/05/18/db9f8c76-591b-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html |access-date=22 November 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=May 22, 2018}}

He married Eliana Steimatzky and had three children: Sharon, Michele and Daniel.

Career

Sachar was a full-time faculty member of the Department of History and the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University for 40 years. He was also a visiting professor at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, and a guest lecturer at nearly 150 other universities in North America, Europe, South Africa and Egypt. In 1996 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He also received the National Jewish Book Award on two separate occasions. In 1977, for A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time and in 1982 for Egypt and Israel.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30759|title=Past Winners|website=Jewish Book Council|language=en|access-date=2020-01-21}}

In 1961 Sachar founded Brandeis University's Jacob Hiatt Institute in Jerusalem, one of the first study-abroad programs in Israel, and served as its director until 1964. Through his connections with the United States Foreign Service, where he worked as a consultant and lecturer on Middle Eastern Affairs, he was able to obtain funding for the Jacob Hiatt Institute from the U.S. State Department in 1965.

He was a member of the American Historical Association as well as one dozen editorial boards and commissions. In addition to his books, he was editor-in-chief of the 39-volume The Rise of Israel: A documentary history.

Howard Sachar died at his home in Kensington, Maryland, on April 18, 2018, aged 90.{{cite news|title=Eminent historian Howard Sachar passes away at home at age 90|url=https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Eminent-historian-Howard-Sachar-passes-away-at-home-at-age-90-552524|access-date=April 26, 2018|work=Jerusalem Post|date=April 23, 2018}}

Political position

Sachar was a member of the advisory council of the pro-peace lobbying organization J Street and an advocate of the two-state solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.{{cite web |url=http://www.jstreet.org/supporters/advisory_council |title=Advisory Council |access-date=31 January 2011 |publisher=J Street |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420194928/http://jstreet.org/supporters/advisory_council |archive-date=20 April 2008 }}

Works

  • The Course of Modern Jewish History (1959; updated 1990){{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/courseofmodernje00sach_0 |url-access=registration |quote=howard sachar. |title=The Course of Modern Jewish History|last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=[https://archive.org/details/courseofmodernje00sach_0/page/891 891] pages |year=1990 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=0-679-72746-9}} Lib. of Cong. Cat. No. 58-67-57
  • Aliyah: The peoples of Israel (1961){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2UBAAAAMAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=Aliyah: The peoples of Israel |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=475 |publisher=World Publishing Co. |year=1961}} Lib. of Cong. Cat. No. 61-12017
  • From the Ends of the Earth: The peoples of Israel (1964){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZNtAAAAMAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=From the Ends of the Earth: The peoples of Israel |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |publisher=World Publishing Co. |year=1964 |pages=510}} Lib. of Cong. Cat. No. 64-12064
  • The Emergence of the Middle East: 1914–1924 (1969) {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2JtAAAAMAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=The Emergence of the Middle East: 1914–1924 |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |publisher=Knopf |year=1969 |pages=518|isbn=9780713901580 }} Lib. of Cong. Cat. No. 76-79349
  • Europe Leaves the Middle East, 1936–1954 (1972){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxiCAAAAIAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=Europe Leaves the Middle East, 1936–1954 |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=687 |publisher=Knopf |year=1972 |isbn=0-394-46064-2}}
  • A History of Israel: From the rise of Zionism to our time (1976; 3rd edition 2007){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJftAAAAMAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=A History of Israel: From the rise of Zionism to our time|last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |publisher=Knopf |year=2007|pages=1270|isbn=978-0-375-71132-9}}
  • The Man on the Camel: A novel (1980){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KII9AAAAIAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=The Man on the Camel: A novel |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=308 |publisher=Times Books |year=1980 |isbn=0-8129-0909-7}}
  • Egypt and Israel (1981){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRCPAAAAIAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=Egypt and Israel |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=384 |publisher=R. Marek |year=1981 |isbn=0-399-90124-8}}
  • Diaspora: An inquiry into the contemporary Jewish world (1985){{cite book |title=Diaspora: An inquiry into the contemporary Jewish world |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1985 |isbn=0-06-015403-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/diaspora00038/page/539 539] |url=https://archive.org/details/diaspora00038/page/539 }}
  • A History of Israel, Volume II: From the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War (1987){{cite book |title=A History of Israel, Volume II: From the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-19-504386-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofisrael00sach }}
  • The Rise of Israel: A documentary record from the nineteenth century to 1948 : a facsimile series reproducing over 1,900 documents in 39 volumes, Volume 1 (1987){{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BoL5SgAACAAJ&q=The+Rise+Of+Israel:+A+Documentary+Record |title=The Rise of Israel: A documentary record from the nineteenth century to 1948 : a facsimile series reproducing over 1,900 documents in 39 volumes, Volume 1 |last1=Sachar |first1=Howard Morley |last2=Cohen |first2=Michael Joseph |last3=Friedman |first3=Isaiah|author4-link=Aaron Klieman |last4=Klieman |first4=Aaron S. |publisher=Garland Pub.|year=1987|isbn=978-0-8240-4926-3}}
  • A History of the Jews in America (1992){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUV2AAAAMAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=A History of the Jews in America |last=Sachar|first=Howard Morley |pages=1051 |publisher=Knopf |year=1992 |isbn= 0-394-57353-6}}
  • Farewell Espana: The world of the Sephardim remembered (1994; reprinted 1995){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBSXPQAACAAJ&q=howard+sachar |title=Farewell Espana: The world of the Sephardim remembered |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1995 |pages=464 |isbn=0-679-73846-0}}
  • Israel and Europe: An Appraisal in History (1998; reprinted 2000){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaaPT3V6odYC&q=howard+sachar&pg=PT2 |title=Israel and Europe: An appraisal in history |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2000 |pages=416 |isbn=0-679-77613-3 |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley}}
  • Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the aftermath of the Great War (2002; reprinted 2003){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7BlAasRSjcYC&q=howard+sachar |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |title=Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the aftermath of the Great War |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2003 |pages=400 |isbn=0-375-70829-4}}
  • A History of the Jews in the Modern World (2005; reprinted 2006){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vo0xXNNQkn4C&q=howard+sachar |title=A History of the Jews in the Modern World |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=848 |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2006 |isbn=1-4000-3097-8}}
  • The Assassination of Europe, 1918-1942: A Political History (2004){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wQBBQAAQBAJ&q=assassination+of+europe |title=The Assassination of Europe, 1918-1942 |last=Sachar |first=Howard Morley |pages=480 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1442609181}}

References

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Category:1928 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:Jewish American historians

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:Historians of Jews and Judaism

Category:Historians of the Middle East

Category:Columbian College of Arts and Sciences faculty

Category:Elliott School of International Affairs faculty

Category:Swarthmore College alumni

Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:20th-century American historians

Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent

Category:21st-century American historians

Category:21st-century American male writers