Stanford Historian (2021)

Stanford Historian 2021

Contents Chair’s Note New Faculty Members Supporting History: An Interview with Jim Friend

In Memoriam

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Dear History Department Alumni and Friends, Warm greetings from Palo Alto! The past year of social distancing, distance learning, and working from home have shown us the importance of staying connected with one another, near and far. It is in this spirit that we are relaunching the Stanford Historian in electronic form.

The newsletter was first published 1966, and since that time, with some interruptions, it has provided our friends with updates about the activities in the History Corner.

Our new website can guide you to current information about our current faculty, students, and programs.

Even during this year of upheaval, our faculty continued their research and teaching at the highest levels. Three of our faculty—Paula Findlen, Kathryn Olivarius, and Gil-li Vardi— receiving outstanding teaching awards from the School of Humanities and Sciences. Professor Gabrielle Hecht received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to continue her research on the global after-effects of toxic materials. You may see the complete listing of faculty’s latest books on our departmental bookshelf and publications in the popular media in our news section. We also engaged in outreach relating to COVID-19 by organizing the Plagues & Pandemics in World History event series, which contextualized the pandemic within the global history of infectious disease, public health, cultures of fear, and inter-group conflicts. In Fall 2021, we are organizing a new, 1-unit course for undergraduates featuring mini-lectures by our faculty on the historical origins of present-day issues. This past year presented us with a unique opportunity to reflect on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As we confronted the stark realities of racial injustice and violence, we committed to improving the diversity, equity, and inclusion of our community, and the department actively participated in the university’s new IDEAL initiative.

There were also many faculty comings and goings. We are delighted to welcome two new faculty members, Professors Partha Pratim Shil (South Asian History) and Destin Jenkins (U.S. History), to our ranks in July 2021. They follow on the heels of Professor Nora Barakat (Ottoman & Middle Eastern History), who joined us in Summer 2020. We saw a number of retirements in the last two years: Joel Beinin, Clayborne Carson, Jack Rakove, Richard Roberts, and Richard White. We mourn the passing of two emeriti faculty, Professors Mark Mancall and Paul Seaver, as well as of Dr. Vartan Gregorian (Class of 1964), whose work is highlighted at the end of this letter. In this letter, you will also find a brief story remembering Mr. Hugo Friend, Jr., in collaboration with his son Mr. Jim Friend (Class of 1975).

Our students once again demonstrated their intellectual excellence and resilience in the pandemic year. Sixty-three undergraduate and sixteen graduate students received their degrees this year.

We could not organize our honors thesis presentations in Room 307 as usual, so we took to Zoom to celebrate our 13 honors students with their families and friends across the globe.

Despite the endlessly challenging circumstances, our students finished the year with aplomb, earning many undergraduate and graduate awards along the way. In lieu of our Diploma Ceremony at the Citrus Courtyard, we celebrated the graduates with a virtual celebration.

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We are always interested to hear from our many alumni and friends. Please feel free to drop by History Corner, or to contact us at historyinfo@stanford.edu. To stay up-to-date with our initiatives, please visit the Stanford History website.

Thank you for reading this letter, connecting with us, and for your support of History at Stanford.

Sincerely, Caroline Winterer Chair, Department of History William Robertson Coe Professor of History Stanford University

Stanford Historian: Could you tell us about your father Hugo “Skip” Friend, Jr. and his love of history?

Jim: Dad always loved history and had a great curiosity about history. I think it came from his father, my grandfather Hugo M. Friend, who emigrated from Bohemia to Chicago as a very young child at the turn of the 20th century. My grandfather was a prominent judge in Chicago and made some interesting history as a young judge, presiding over the famous 1919 Black Sox trial and also the 1928 trial of Chicago’s controversial mayor, William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson, who was sued by the (continues on the next page)

Photo: Hugo “Skip” Friend, Jr. (on the right) and Hugo M. Friend (Courtesy of Jim Friend) 3

Chicago Tribune, found guilty, and was ordered to pay more than $1.7 million dollars to the City for misuse of public funds. Dad found history endlessly fascinating and would often regale us with stories about the past. Wherever we traveled, he made an effort to learn about the history of the places we visited. His love, almost reverence for history was infectious.

Stanford Historian: What is your strongest Stanford memory as a History major?

Jim: I tried to take as many small seminars as I could, because I loved the intellectual interaction with my professors and fellow students. I took a wonderful seminar on immigrants in America from Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor Carl Degler, who loved teaching and was very generous with his time. The seminar required a fairly significant paper at the end of the quarter, and I proposed to Professor Degler writing a mini-biography of my grandfather. In addition to his famous legal career, my grandfather was a big track star at the University of Chicago in the days of Chicago’s larger-than-life coach, Amos Alonzo Stagg. As an undergraduate and later as a law student, he was named to the United States Olympic track team and medaled in the 1904 and 1906 Olympic Games.

For the seminar paper, I spent several weeks doing research in Chicago, interviewing many who knew and worked with my grandfather. I also interviewed the authors of books about his famous legal cases. I spent time in the Chicago Tribune and the University of Chicago archives.

Professor Degler worked closely with me on how to pursue the research and evaluate the archival material. He advised me on how to connect the paper to my grandfather’s immigrant experience and how to be as objective as possible about the subject matter, which obviously was personal to me and my family. I loved the chance to do primary research and to work through the various drafts of the paper with Professor Degler, who exhibited great care and enthusiasm for my research.

Stanford Historian: I’m sure there are many causes you and your father cared about. How did you choose to support the Stanford History department in his memory?

Jim: When I lost my dad, I spent a lot of time thinking about what he loved and cared about. He always loved people and had great curiosity about their lives and backgrounds. Dad especially loved young people and their boundless enthusiasm and promise. Throughout my time at Stanford, he always looked forward to meeting my friends and learning about their studies and their lives on the Farm. In thinking about a way to honor dad’s memory, I thought the idea of helping Stanford students discover the wonders of primary historical research in a first rate history department, where I knew that the faculty would mentor them the way that I was mentored by Professor Degler, was a great fit for dad’s love of history and young people.

Stanford Historian: Would you recommend this to others?

Jim: Memorializing a parent is a gift to the giver as much as to the recipient. I loved the idea of creating a fund in my dad’s memory and had no hesitation suggesting to friends and family that they consider a gift to the fund. I will derive a lot of pleasure in future years knowing that the funds given in my dad’s memory will help a curious Stanford student as he or she grapples with some tricky historical documents in the wee hours of the morning, trying to weave a narrative that will lead to a better understanding of what really happened in the past.

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In Memoriam

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