Leonard A. Gordon
{{Short description|American historian}}
Leonard Abraham Gordon is a historian of South Asia, especially of Bengal, whose 1990 book Brothers Against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalist Leaders Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose is considered the definitive biography of Subhas Chandra Bose.{{Sfn|Kopf|1992|pp=271–272|ps=: Quote: "After almost thirty years of the most painstaking research in the libraries and archives of Europe and Asia, and after 150 interviews, Leonard A. Gordon has published this long-awaited biography of Subhas Chandra Bose, which includes the story of his brother, Sarat, also a freedom fighter. I know of no other comparable work that offers such meticulously detailed information on twentieth-century Bengali politics and politicians, both regional and national, Hindu and Muslim. ... The result is a masterful blending of archival evidence, acute intuitive apprehension, and gossip, brilliantly organized chronologically in fourteen chapters and amazingly confined to well within 1,000 pages. Much can be written in praise of this biography; it is surely Gordon's magnum opus."}}{{Sfn|Zachariah|2012|p=109|ps=: Quote: "Academic circles have long had in Leonard A. Gordon's Brothers against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose (1990) a careful and detailed account of the lives of Subhas Bose and his elder brother Sarat. Sugata Bose's book is not likely to replace Gordon's account."}}{{Sfn|Wainwright|2013|pp=360–361|ps=: Quote: "Bose therefore continues to be seen as a treacherous fascist collaborator to some and a heroic Indian freedom fighter to others. Scholars have had to negotiate the grey area between these two polar opposites in their treatment of Bose and the Indian National Army he helped create. Perhaps the most definitive work to date is Leonard A. Gordon’s Brothers Against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose."}}
Education and career
Gordon graduated from Amherst College,{{cite web|publisher = Amherst College Library: Archival and Special Collections|title=Index to the Amherst Alumni News and Amherst Magazine: Volumes 1-56, 1949-2004| url=https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/publications/etexts/amherstmagindex|accessdate=26 November 2013}} and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.{{Sfn|Gupta|1975|p=1033}} He was a professor of history at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and has emeritus status there now. He was also the Director of the Southern Asia Institute at Columbia University.
Gordon's revised Harvard dissertation,{{Sfn|Gupta|1975|p=1033}} Bengal: the Nationalist Movement won the (now discontinued) biennial Watumull Prize of the American Historical Association in 1974, a prize recognizing "the best book on the history of India originally published in the United States."{{cite web|publisher=American Historical Association|url=https://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/discontinued-awards|title=Discontinued Awards: Watumull Prize (1946–1982)|accessdate=26 November 2013}} Gordon has been praised for his "narration of political events."{{Sfn|Gupta|1975|p=1033b|ps=: Quote: "Narration of political events is Gordon's forte, and the middle part of the book in which he summarizes events and condenses a number of published monographs, biographies, and autobiographies is written in brilliant prose."}}
Bibliography
- {{citation|last1=Gordon|first1=Leonard A.|last2=Miller|first2=Barbara Stoler|authorlink2=Barbara Stoler Miller|title=A Syllabus of Indian Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3qDMwEACAAJ|year=1971|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York}}
- {{citation|last=Gordon|first=Leonard A.|title=Bengal: the Nationalist Movement, 1876-1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyUKAQAAIAAJ|date=January 1974|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-231-03753-2}}
- {{citation|last=Gordon|first=Leonard A.|title=Brothers Against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalist Leaders Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZ-BQgAACAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-231-07383-7}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist|2}}
References
- {{citation|last=Framke|first=Maria|title=Encounters with Fascism and National Socialist in non-European Regions: Review of five books 1. Sugata Bose, His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle Against Empire, 2011; 2. ...|journal=Sudasien-Chronik – South Asia Chronicle|volume=2|year=2012|pages=350–374|isbn=978-3-86004-286-1|url=http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/suedasien/band-2/350/PDF/350.pdf|publisher=Sudasien-Seminar der Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin|doi=10.18452/17972}}
- {{citation|last=Gupta|first=Brijen K.| title= Review of Bengal: The Nationalist Movement, 1876-1940 by Leonard A Gordon|journal = American Historical Review|volume=30|issue=4|pages=1033|year=1975|jstor=1867585|doi=10.2307/1867585}}
- {{citation|last=Hayes|first=Romain|title=Subhas Chandra Bose in Nazi Germany: Politics, Intelligence and Propaganda 1941-1943|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRt9mgEACAAJ|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-932739-3}}
- {{citation|last=Kling|first=Blair B.|title=Review of :Brothers against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose by Leonard A. Gordon|journal = Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=113|issue=1|pages=155|year=1993|doi=10.2307/604239|jstor=604239}}
- {{citation|last=Kopf|first=David| authorlink = David Kopf|title=Review of: Brothers against the Raj: A Biography of Indian Nationalists Sarat and Subhas Chandra Bose by Leonard A. Gordon|journal = American Historical Review|volume=97|issue=1|year=1992|pages=270–271|doi=10.2307/2164695|jstor=2164695}}
- {{citation|last=Wainwright|first=A. Martin|title=Review of His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire, by Sugata Bose, 2011|journal=Historian|volume=75|issue=2|pages=361–362|date=Summer 2013|doi=10.1111/hisn.12010_25|s2cid=144712375}}
- {{citation|last=Zachariah|first=Benjamin|title=Review of Sugata Bose. His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle Against Empire|pages=109–110|journal=American Historical Review|year = 2012|volume=117|issue=2|doi=10.1086/ahr.117.2.509}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Leonard A.}}
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Amherst College alumni
Category:Brooklyn College faculty
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
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