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| Michael B. Katz | |
|---|---|
| Name | Michael B. Katz |
| Birth date | 1939 |
| Death date | 2014 |
| Birth place | Brooklyn |
| Death place | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Historian, Professor |
| Employer | Harvard University, City University of New York |
| Notable works | The Undeserving Poor, The Irony of Early Childhood Education |
Michael B. Katz (1939–2014) was an American historian and scholar of social policy, poverty, and urbane studies whose work reshaped debates at institutions such as Harvard University, City University of New York, Columbia University, Princeton University, and University of California, Berkeley. Katz combined archival research with policy analysis, engaging with figures and events tied to New Deal, Great Society, War on Poverty, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson initiatives while dialoguing with scholars at Harvard Kennedy School, Brookings Institution, Russell Sage Foundation, and American Historical Association. His scholarship intersected with the writings of Charles Murray, William Julius Wilson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Alice Kessler-Harris, and Christopher Jencks.
Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Katz grew up amid postwar urban transformations alongside contemporaries influenced by Suburbanization, GI Bill, and Great Migration patterns that shaped neighborhoods like Brownsville, Brooklyn and Coney Island. He attended public schools before matriculating at Columbia University where he studied under scholars connected to the intellectual lineages of Richard Hofstadter, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and C. Vann Woodward. Katz pursued graduate work at Harvard University, engaging with archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society and libraries associated with John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Library of Congress.
Katz began teaching at institutions including City College of New York, the Graduate Center, CUNY, and later held appointments at Harvard University where he influenced programs in urban history and social policy alongside colleagues from Department of History (Harvard). He served on editorial boards for journals linked to American Historical Review, Journal of American History, and collaborated with centers such as the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute. Katz advised policymakers interacting with agencies like the United States Department of Health and Human Services, participated in panels at the Kennedy School of Government, and lectured internationally at venues including London School of Economics, University of Toronto, and Sciences Po.
Katz authored influential books and articles such as The Undeserving Poor, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse, and essays collected in volumes debated by scholars like Michael Harrington, Frances Fox Piven, Paul P. Batterson, and Herbert Gans. His themes addressed the history of public assistance, the politics of welfare reform, and the institutional roles of charitable organizations including the United Jewish Appeal, Salvation Army, and Philanthropic foundations like the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation. Katz analyzed policy episodes involving Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Social Security Act, Works Progress Administration, and Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, comparing responses in cities such as New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit.
Katz integrated archival sources from collections tied to figures like Harry Hopkins, Robert F. Wagner Jr., Richard J. Daley, and institutions such as Hull House and Chicago Historical Society. He critiqued arguments by commentators including Charles Murray and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, while dialoguing with historians such as David Brion Davis, E. P. Thompson, and Jill Lepore about class, race, and policy.
Katz influenced generations of historians, policy analysts, and activists from programs at CUNY Graduate Center and Harvard Kennedy School to think tanks like Urban Institute and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. His work informed debates on legislation such as Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act and inspired historiographical work by scholars including Kimberly Phillips-Fein, Heather Ann Thompson, Jason DeParle, and Natalie Shure. Katz’s archival methods and focus on institutional actors shaped curricula at departments like History of American Cities and research agendas in centers such as the Migration Policy Institute and Institute for Research on Poverty.
Katz received fellowships and honors from organizations including the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He was invited to lecture at forums hosted by Smithsonian Institution, awarded prizes by the Organization of American Historians, and held visiting appointments at Princeton University and Yale University.
Katz lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and maintained ties with communities in Brooklyn and Boston. He collaborated with public intellectuals such as Michael Walzer and Saskia Sassen on panels about urban inequality and social policy, and he mentored students who later taught at Columbia University, New York University, and University of Chicago. He died in 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Category:Historians of the United States Category:1939 births Category:2014 deaths