Occupation Indologist Name Stanley Wolpert | Role Academic | |
Born December 23, 1927 (age 96) ( 1927-12-23 ) Brooklyn, New York Books Jinnah of Pakistan, Shameful Flight, A New History of India, Gandhi's Passion: The Life a, Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan | ||
Stanley Wolpert (born December 23, 1927) is an American academic, Indologist, and author on the political and intellectual history of modern India and Pakistan and has written fiction and nonfiction books on the topics. He taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1959-2002.
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Early life
Stanley Albert Wolpert was born on December 23, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish parents. While serving as an engineer aboard a U.S. Merchant Marine ship, he arrived in Bombay, India for the first time on February 12, 1948. Upon arriving, he was both fascinated and overwhelmed by the extraordinary outpouring of grief over the death of Mahatma Gandhi—who he then knew very little about—just two weeks earlier. Atop a hill, he witnessed numerous mourning Indians who were rushing to touch the ashes of Gandhi as the ship on which the urn was placed weighed anchor to scatter a portion of his ashes into the water below. On returning home, he abandoned his career in marine engineering for the study of Indian history. He received a B.A. from City College in 1953, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955 and 1959. with a dissertation (published as Tilak and Gokhale) on the revolutionary and reform wings of the Indian National Congress. The dissertation was one of the two books selected for the now discontinued biennial Watumull Prize of the American Historical Association in 1962, a prize recognizing "the best book on the history of India originally published in the United States."
Career
Wolpert began his academic career in 1959, when he took a job as an instructor in the Department of History at UCLA. He was promoted in 1960-63 to assistant professor; 1963-66 associate professor; 1967 full professor. In 1968 he was appointed department chair. He is now an emeritus professor.
Recognition
In 1975 Wolpert was awarded UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Wolpert was a guest on Connie Martinson Talks Books in 2011, promoting his 2010 book, India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation."
Personal life
He has been married to Dorothy Wolpert (née Guberman) since June 12, 1953. They met in an American government class at UCLA, where Dorothy studied law. She went on to become a senior partner in a Century City law firm, and has made several visits to India with her husband. They have two sons—Daniel and Adam, and three grandchildren—Sam, Max, and Sabine. His book Nine Hours to Rama was adapted to a feature film in 1963.