Women’s History Pioneer Tells Own Story

One of this century’s leading women’s history scholars entranced a room filled with students and faculty yesterday with the story of her life.

Gerda Lerner, who revolutionized the study of women’s history and authored more than 10 books, read favorite passages from her memoir Fireweed before answering questions and signing copies of the book at the Cronkhite Graduate Center. The event was co-sponsored by the Schlesinger Library and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Lerner’s autobiography focuses on the influential experiences that led her to social activism before her academic career began.

“I feel that my life as a professional academic is well-known, but I have had difficulty in the past sharing the events of my traumatic adolescence,” said Lerner, who spent her childhood in Nazi-occupied Austria before escaping to the United States.

The child of a middle-class Viennese Jewish family, Lerner was a teenager when the fascist regime came to power in Austria in 1934. She became engaged in the underground student resistance movement, but when the Nazi takeover later forced her and her family into exile, she alone escaped to the U.S. to join the radical leftist party and embark on her academic career.

“It was painful to relive the experiences of my childhood, but I did not want to live the rest of my life in a closet of my own making. I have come out of that closet in Fireweed,” Lerner said.

Presenting her life in the context of the major historical events of the twentieth century, Lerner recounted a story of moral courage and a commitment to social change. Excerpts of her selected experiences stressed the importance of having the courage to live according to one’s convictions, especially in the face of hardship, hopelessness and brutality.

‘The day the Nazis swept across Vienna, I felt like a pit opened before me, and I stood on its edge. I was so afraid—of the panic, the beatings, the concentration camps, but knew that I couldn’t give up hope for democracy and a better future,’ she said.

After emigrating to the U.S. with just five dollars in her pocket, Lerner struggled through the Great Depression and spent decades in grassroots organizations. She credits her fascination with women’s history and her revolutionary academic achievements in the field to the experiences of her childhood and adolescence.

Lerner’s childhood of turmoil gave way to a life of academic achievement as a leading author and revolutionary scholar. Establishing the first degree program in women’s history in the United States, Lerner became a Professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin at the age of 46.

She was later named the president of the Organization of American Historians and awarded a prestigious Robinson Edwards Professor of History grant.

According to Lerner, her achievements are inextricably linked to her traumatic past, which gave her the strength and determination to survive.

“I was a rebellious child with a good imagination living in a world that taught me never to forsake my beliefs,” Lerner said. “And in many ways, almost 70 years later, I still am.”