Fitzpatrick, Sheila 1941- (Sheila May Fitzpatrick)

PERSONAL:

Born June 4, 1941, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; daughter of Brian F. and Dorothy Mary Fitzpatrick; married Michael Danos (deceased, 1999). Education: University of Melbourne, B.A., 1961; Oxford University, D.Phil., 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St., Mailbox 30, Chicago, IL 60637; fax: 773-702-7550. E-mail—sf13@uchicago.edu.

CAREER:

Historian and writer. School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, London, England, research fellow, 1969-71; London School of Economics and Political Science, London, research fellow, 1971-72; University of Texas, Austin, Slavic department lecturer, 1972-73, professor of history, 1981, Oliver H. Radkey professor of history, 1987-89; St. John's University, New York, NY, associate professor of history, 1974-75; Columbia University, New York, NY, assistant professor, then associate professor of history, 1975-80; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, professor of history, then Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service professor of history, 1990—. Wissenschaftskolleg-Berlin fellow, 2008-09.

MEMBER:

American Association for Slavic and East European Studies (former president), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Australian Academy of the Humanities.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1981-82; Guggenheim fellow, 1987-88, 1996; Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award, 2002.

WRITINGS:

The Commissariat of Enlightenment: Soviet Organization of Education and the Arts under Lunacharsky, October 1917-1921, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1970.

(Editor) Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1978.

Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union, 1921-1934, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1979.

The Russian Revolution, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1982, 3rd edition, 2008.

Culture et révolution, Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris, France), 1989.

(Editor, with Lynne Viola) A Researcher's Guide to Sources on Soviet Social History in the 1930s, M.E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 1990.

(Editor, with Alexander Rabinowitch and Richard Stites) Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1991.

The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1992.

Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor, with Robert Gellately) Accusatory Practices: Denunciation in Modern European History, 1789-1989, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1997.

(Editor) Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, Soviet Russia in the 1930s, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Stalinism: New Directions, Routledge (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with Yuri Slezkine) In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War, translated by Yuri Slezkine, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2000.

Tear Off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2005.

(Editor, with Stuart Macintyre, and contributor) Against the Grain: Brian Fitzpatrick and Manning Clark in Australian Politics and History, Melbourne University Press (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of European Studies, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Slavic Review, Cahiers du monde russe et sovietique, London Review of Books, and French Historical Studies. Author's works have been translated into Russian. Coeditor of the Journal of Modern History, 1995-2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sheila Fitzpatrick is an historian, academician, and writer. Fitzpatrick got her start in academia at the University of Melbourne, where she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1961. By 1969 she graduated from Oxford University with a doctorate of philosophy in modern history. Following graduation Fitzpatrick began working as a research fellow at London's School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. Two years later she became a research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1972 she began lecturing in the Slavic department at the University of Texas, Austin. In 1974 she moved to New York, accepting a position at St. John's University in the history department. From 1975 to 1980 she served as assistant professor, then associate professor of history at Columbia University. In 1981 she returned to the University of Texas, Austin, as a professor of history before serving a year as a Woodrow Wilson fellow. In 1987 she was named Oliver H. Radkey professor of history at University of Texas, Austin and became a Guggenheim fellow concurrently. In 1990 she moved to the University of Chicago, eventually being named the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service professor of history.

Fitzpatrick has been an active member in professional and academic organizations throughout her career, particularly in the fields of history and Slavonic studies. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and served as past president of the American Association for Slavic and East European Studies. Fitzpatrick was a coeditor of the Journal of Modern History and also contributes to numerous periodicals, including the Journal of European Studies, Australian Journal of Politics and History, Kritika, Slavic Review, Cahiers du monde russe et soviet-ique, London Review of Books, and French Historical Studies. In 2002 Fitzpatrick was awarded the Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award. Her primary research focus is the history of modern Russia. Research interests include Stalinist Soviet cultural and social history, with special attention to daily practices and social identities. Other interests include society in the Khrushchev era, leftist Australian politics, and post-WWII displaced populations in Germany.

Fitzpatrick published her first book, The Commissariat of Enlightenment: Soviet Organization of Education and the Arts under Lunacharsky, October 1917-1921, in 1970. This was followed by Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931 in 1978, Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union, 1921-1934 in 1979, the first edition of The Russian Revolution in 1982, and Culture et Révolution in 1989.

In 1990 Fitzpatrick coedited A Researcher's Guide to Sources on Soviet Social History in the 1930s with Lynne Viola. Contributions to the guide come from top scholars in the field, including three from inside the former Soviet Union. Others were presented as essays at the Fourteenth Annual Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in 1982. The bibliographic essays are organized into various topics, including laws, archives, newspapers, journals, statistics, collectivization and industrialization, and city directories. Susan L. Fales, writing in RQ, noted that A Researcher's Guide to Sources on Soviet Social History in the 1930s "fills a unique bibliographical void in Soviet studies," adding that "it provides the means for scholars to direct their research in the most efficient manner possible as well as a forum for the study of historical sources, born, nurtured, and protected in a highly totalitarian political environment."

Fitzpatrick followed this with Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture in 1991, with coeditors Alexander Rabinowitch and Richard Stites. In 1992 she published The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia and the second edition of The Russian Revolution in 1994. That same year she published Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization. The book covers the means of popular resistance by the Russian common citizen and farmer against the Stalinist policy to reenserf the population by getting rid of all private farms in the country. Reviews for the work were mostly positive. Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, described the book as "a pioneering piece of historical sociology that delineates the deplorable reality of ideological utopias." Writing in the English Historical Review, R.W. Davies concluded that "this book of essays is stimulating and contains much original material." Davies also added that Stalin's Peasants "fills a major gap in our sources."

With Robert Gellately, Fitzpatrick edited Accusatory Practices: Denunciation in Modern European History, 1789-1989 in 1997. In 1999 she edited Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, Soviet Russia in the 1930s. This widely acclaimed book is the partner study of Stalin's Peasants, in that it examines the urban landscape of the Soviet Union and the difficulties faced by city dwellers. Reviews were mostly positive. Abraham Brumberg, writing in the Nation, commented: "An assiduous scholar, Professor Fitzpatrick seems to have scrutinized every relevant scrap of paper. Her explication is a model of balance and judiciousness." A contributor to Publishers Weekly noted that "Fitzpatrick's absorbing study provides solid details for the general and student reader and lays the groundwork for future research." Robert Persing, writing in Library Journal, remarked that "Fitzpatrick's slice-of-life analysis is fascinating, emphasizing the resiliency of the Russian people."

In 2000 Fitzpatrick published Stalinism: New Directions. With Yuri Slezkine, she edited In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War in the same year. The editorial team collected oral histories, autobiographies, memoirs, and archival records to piece together the lives and lifestyles of women in pre-WWII Russia. Reviews for the collection of stories were mostly positive. A contributor to Publishers Weekly found that the numerous personal accounts throughout the book "beg for the fuller story, yet they still give depth and human dimension to a place and period too often shrouded in polemics and ideology." A contributor to Russian Life, however, commented: "Thankfully, stories such as these have been preserved and catalogued."

In 2005 Fitzpatrick published Tear Off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia. This book comprises fifteen years of Fitzpatrick's work. Prepublished essays were reworked and edited to fit the format of this book, which encompasses issues in early Soviet Russia, such as class, identity, and imposture. Writing in History: Review of New Books, William B. Whisenhunt praised the work, saying that "Fitzpatrick has provided an outstanding study of an elusive topic." Whisenhunt added that "this work will be extremely valuable for students and scholars of Soviet history."

Fitzpatrick told CA: "Since 2003, I have been a regular contributor on Russian and musical topics to the London Review of Books, and this has encouraged me to begin writing for a broader audience than the specialized academic one."

She further stated that her writing is influenced by her Australian childhood, as well as by the experiences of her late husband, the physicist Michael Danos, and his mother, Olga Danos, as "displaced persons" in Germany in the 1940s.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December, 1982, review of Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union, 1921-1934, p. 1433; October, 1996, review of Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization, p. 1249; December, 2000, Roberta Manning, review of Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times, Soviet Russia in the 1930s, p. 1839; June, 2007, Amir Weiner, review of Tear Off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in the Twentieth-Century Russia, p. 959.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, May, 1981, Wayne S. Vucinich, review of Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union, 1921-1934, p. 188.

Booklist, January 15, 1994, Gilbert Taylor, review of Stalin's Peasants, p. 896; February 1, 1999, Frank Caso, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 948.

Canadian Journal of History, April, 2001, Heather J. Coleman, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 151.

Canadian Slavonic Papers, March 1, 1992, Stephen Kotkin, review of A Researcher's Guide to Sources on Soviet Social History in the 1930s, p. 166; March 1, 1992, T. Yedlin, review of Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture, p. 184.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February, 1992, G.E. Snow, review of Russia in the Era of NEP, p. 949; November, 1994, A. Geifman, review of Stalin's Peasants, p. 512; September, 1999, J. Zimmerman, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 210; November, 2000, review of In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War, p. 588.

Contemporary Review, November, 1999, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 279.

Contemporary Sociology, January, 1994, review of The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia, p. 72.

English Historical Review, November, 1996, R.W. Davies, review of Stalin's Peasants, p. 1,339.

European History Quarterly, April, 1993, James Hughes, review of Russia in the Era of NEP, p. 298.

Europe-Asia Studies, November, 1993, Michael David-Fox, review of The Cultural Front, p. 1119; January, 1994, Michael David-Fox, review of The Cultural Front, p. 155; May, 2001, Katy Turton, review of In the Shadow of the Revolution, p. 523; June, 2006, Maureen Perrie, review of Tear Off the Masks!, p. 635.

Foreign Affairs, March, 1999, Robert Legvold, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 152.

History: Review of New Books, summer, 1999, Victor Rosenberg, review of Everyday Stalinism; fall, 2005, William B. Whisenhunt, review of Tear Off the Masks!

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, January, 2001, Maureen Perrie, review of Stalinism: New Directions, p. 131.

History Today, April, 1983, review of Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931, p. 43; February, 1996, review of The Russian Revolution, p. 53; April, 2000, review of In the Shadow of Revolution, p. 57.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, summer, 1993, Lynn Mally, review of Russia in the Era of NEP; spring, 1995, review of The Cultural Front.

Journal of Modern History, December, 1990, review of Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931, p. 837; March, 1995, Charles A. Ruud, review of The Cultural Front, p. 249; March, 1998, Christine D. Worobec, review of Stalin's Peasants, p. 256; September, 2001, Jeffrey J. Rossman, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 722.

Journal of Social History, summer, 1995, Nellie Hauke Ohr, review of Stalin's Peasants.

Journal of the History of Ideas, April, 1993, review of The Cultural Front, p. 335.

Kritika, Volume 3, number 3, 2007, "From the Editors. An Interview with Sheila Fitzpatrick."

Library Journal, January, 1999, Robert Persing, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 122.

London Review of Books, February 8, 2007, Sheila Fitzpatrick, "Diary," p. 3, autobiographical article; March 8, 2007, Julie Elkner, "Partners in Crime," p. 43.

Nation, August 23, 1999, Abraham Brumberg, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 32.

New Leader, December 14, 1998, Gene Sosin, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 13.

New York Review of Books, March 9, 2000, Aileen Kelly, "The Secret Sharer," p. 33.

New York Times Book Review, March 14, 1999, William Taubman, review of Everyday Stalinism.

Political Studies, December, 2000, Richard Taylor, review of Stalinism, p. 1,073.

Publishers Weekly, January 11, 1999, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 62; May 1, 2000, review of In the Shadow of Revolution, p. 57; May 1, 2000, review of In the Shadow of Revolution, p. 57.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 1998, review of Accusatory Practices: Denunciation in Modern European History, 1789-1989, p. 155.

RQ, fall, 1991, Susan L. Fales, review of A Researcher's Guide to Sources on Soviet Social History in the 1930s.

Russian Life, March, 2001, review of In the Shadow of Revolution, p. 60.

Russian Review, October, 1987, Hiroaki Kuromiya, "Stalinism and Historical Research," p. 404; October, 1987, "History, Commemoration, and Hectoring Rhetoric," p. 418; October, 1987, "In Search of Young Revisionists," p. 428; October, 1987, "Revisionizing Stalin's Russia," p. 386; October, 1987, "Social History and Revisionism of the Stalinist Era," p. 382; October, 1987, "Stalinism and Historical Research," p. 404; October, 1987, "Stalinism: Revisionism Reconsidered," p. 412; October, 1987, "State and Society in Stalinist Russia," p. 407; October, 1987, "State, Society, and Superstition," p. 391; October, 1987, "The ‘Dark Forces,’ the Totalitarian Model, and Soviet History," p. 397; October, 1987, "The Stalin Period as an Historical Problem," p. 424; July, 1991, William B. Husband, review of A Researcher's Guide to Sources on Soviet Social History in the 1930s, p. 367; January, 1994, Lewis Siegelbaum, review of The Cultural Front, p. 148; January, 1996, Gabor T. Ritterspoon, review of Stalin's Peasants, p. 134; April, 1999, review of Cultural Revolution; April, 2000, Chris Ward, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 306; January, 2006, review of Tear Off the Masks!

Slavic Review, fall, 1993, Daniel Orlovsky, review of Russia in the Era of NEP; spring, 1996, Robert E. Johnson, review of Stalin's Peasants; winter, 1999, Lewis H. Siegelbaum, review of Everyday Stalinism; winter, 2006, J. Arch Getty, review of Tear Off the Masks!

Slavonic and East European Review, April, 1994, Catriona Kelly, review of The Cultural Front, p. 355; January, 2000, Geoffrey Hosking, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 161.

Social History, October, 2000, Sarah Davies, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 383.

Soviet Studies, July, 1992, Vincent Barnett, review of Russia in the Era of NEP, p. 725.

Times Literary Supplement, January 13, 1995, Orlando Figes, review of Stalin's Peasants, p. 26; July 7, 2000, review of In the Shadow of Revolution, p. 33; June 15, 2001, Martin Malia, review of Everyday Stalinism, p. 3; June 15, 2001, Martin Malia, review of Stalinism, p. 3.

Virginia Quarterly Review, summer, 1993, review of The Cultural Front; summer, 1996, review of Stalin's Peasants; winter, 1997, review of Stalin's Peasants.

Wilson Quarterly, summer, 1999, Edward Tenner, review of Everyday Stalinism.

ONLINE

University of Chicago, Department of History Web site,http://history.uchicago.edu/ (November 24, 2007), author profile.