Harris, Barbara J. 1942–

(Barbara Jean Harris)

PERSONAL:

Born August 12, 1942, in Newark, NJ; daughter of Samuel M. and Sadie Z. Rous; married Joel B. Harris, 1965 (divorced, 1985); children: Clifford S. Education: Vassar College, A.B. (summa cum laude), 1963; Harvard University, A.M., 1964, Ph.D., 1968.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of History, CB 3195, Hamilton Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195. E-mail—bharris@email.unc.edu.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, and writer. Pace University—New York, Brooklyn, NY, assistant professor, 1968-74, associate professor, 1974-78, professor of history, 1978—. Visiting professor at Vassar College, 1979-81; member of executive committee of Columbia University Seminar on Women and Society, beginning, 1984—; then University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, professor of history and women's studies. Also served as member of Family History Research Group of Institute for Research for History, New York, NY.

MEMBER:

North American Conference on British Studies (vice president and president elect), American Historical Association, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians (president, 1990-93), Coordinating Committee of Women in the Historical Profession, Middle Atlantic Conference on British Studies, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1963-64, 1966-67; junior fellow of National Endowment for the Humanities, 1976.

WRITINGS:

(Contributor) R.H. Hilton, editor, Peasants, Knights, and Heretics, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1977.

Beyond Her Sphere: Women and the Professions in American History, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1978.

(Editor, with Alan Roland) Career and Motherhood: Struggles for a New Identity, Human Sciences (New York, NY), 1978.

(Editor, with Jo Ann McNamara) Women and the Social Order: Selected Research from the Fifth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1984.

(Contributor) Miriam Lewin, editor, In the Shadow of the Past: Psychology Portrays the Sexes, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1984.

Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham, 1478-1521, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1986.

English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor of articles and reviews to historical journals. Member of editorial board of Journal of Social History, 1984—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Barbara J. Harris is a historian whose research and writing has focused primarily on English aristocratic women. "Those who have read and benefitted from Barbara Harris's articles on the familial and political lives of aristocratic women in early modern England will be pleased to now have her book on the subject," wrote Amy M. Froide on the Humanities and Social Sciences Online Web site. The book, English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers, presents the author's case that the roles of aristocratic wives, mothers, and widows within the family were not minor but rather constituted careers that had public and political significance equal to their husband's careers. Harris contends that these women's roles were crucial for the survival and prosperity of their families and class. According to the author, aristocratic women were brought up to be able to manage family properties and households and arrange marriages and careers for their children. They also played crucial roles in creating, sustaining, and exploiting the client-patron relationships that were essential in the politics of their time, both at the regional and national levels. Furthermore, since most of these women outlived their husbands, the majority of them also not only oversaw the management of the family property but also how it was transmitted from one generation to another.

"The book is an urbane and absorbing read, for all the information and illustration it contains," wrote Ralph A. Griffiths in Albion. Reviewing the book in Renaissance Quarterly, Colleen M. Seguin noted that the author's "analysis of how female ‘career servants of the crown’ … competed for and dispensed patronage, performed in court pageantry and masques, used their appearances and accomplishments to create a congenial environment for foreign relations, and participated actively in high politics with the dawn of the Reformation, is the most provocative element in this prodigiously researched and wonderfully detailed study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, Ralph A. Griffiths, review of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers, p. 105.

English Historical Review, February, 2004, R.W. Hoyle, review of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550, p. 199.

Journal of Social History, summer, 2004, Martha C. Howell, review of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550, p. 1105.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 2004, Colleen M. Seguin, review of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550, p. 332.

ONLINE

Humanities and Social Sciences Online, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/ (May 7, 2008), Amy M. Froide, review of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of History Web site, http://history.unc.edu/ (May 7, 2008), faculty profile of author.