Stanley Wolpert - Revision history

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	{{Short description\|American Indologist}}		{{Short description\|American Indologist}}
	{{About\|a Indologist\|the mathematician\|Scott A. Wolpert}}		{{About\|the Indologist\|the mathematician\|Scott A. Wolpert}}
	{{Infobox person		{{Infobox person
	\| name = Stanley Wolpert		\| name = Stanley Wolpert
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	\| death_place =		\| death_place =
	\| occupation = [[Indologist]]		\| occupation = [[Indologist]]
	\| ~~alma_mater~~ = [[City College of New York]] ([[Bachelor of Arts\|BA]])<br/>[[University of Pennsylvania]] ([[Master of Arts\|AM]], [[PhD]])		\| education = [[City College of New York]] ([[Bachelor of Arts\|BA]])<br/>[[University of Pennsylvania]] ([[Master of Arts\|MA]], [[PhD]])
	\| notable_works = ''Morley and India Nineteen Six to Nineteen Ten'' (1967)<br />''[[Jinnah of Pakistan]]'' (1984)		\| notable_works = ''Morley and India Nineteen Six to Nineteen Ten'' (1967)<br />''[[Jinnah of Pakistan]]'' (1984)
	}}		}}
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	===Early life===		===Early life===
	Stanley Albert Wolpert was born on December 23, 1927, in [[Brooklyn, New York\|Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)\|New York]]<ref name=WolpertBio/> to [[Russian Jew]]ish parents. While serving as an engineer aboard a [[U.S. Merchant Marine]] ship,<ref name=UCLAarticle>2005 UCLA International Institute blog reporting on the publication of Wolpert's 2002 book, ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi'' http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30808 {{webarchive \|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920074437/http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30808 \|date=September 20, 2006 }}</ref> 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]]—whom he then knew very little about—just two weeks earlier.<ref name=AcademicBackground>1997 ''UCLA Today'' article on Wolpert's academic background {{cite web \|url=http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970328DeathOf.aspx \|title=DEATH OF GANDHI SET SCHOLAR ON PATH / UCLA Today \|access-date=2010-01-24 \|url-status=dead \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604201954/http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970328DeathOf.aspx \|archive-date=2011-06-04 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=AcademicBackground/> On returning home, he abandoned his career in marine engineering for the study of [[Political history of India\|Indian history]].<ref name=AcademicBackground/><ref>Wolpert, Stanley (2001). ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi''. Oxford University Press. pp. vii</ref><ref name="1997interview">{{Cite web \|title=Rediff On The NeT: Rajeev Srinivasan interviews Stanley Wolpert, Nehru's biographer \|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/mar/01nehru.htm \|access-date=2022-10-07 \|website=www.rediff.com}}</ref><ref name=Essays>Long, Roger D. (editor) (2004).''Charisma and Commitment in South Asian History: Essays presented to Stanley Wolpert''. pp. 6-35.</ref> He received a [[Bachelor of Arts\|B.A.]] from [[City College of New York\|City College]] in 1953,<ref name=WolpertBio/> and an [[Master of Arts\|M.A.]] and [[Ph.D.]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1955 and 1959.<ref name=Facultypage/><ref name=WolpertBio/> ~~with a~~ [[dissertation]] (published as ''Tilak and Gokhale'')<ref name=1997interview/> on the revolutionary and reform wings of the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref name=AcademicBackground/> 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."<ref>{{cite web\|publisher=American Historical Association\|url=https://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/discontinued-awards\|title=Discontinued Awards: Watumull Prize (1946–1982)\|access-date=2 May 2015}}</ref>		Stanley Albert Wolpert was born on December 23, 1927, in [[Brooklyn, New York\|Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)\|New York]],<ref name=WolpertBio/> to [[Russian Jew]]ish parents. While serving as an engineer aboard a [[U.S. Merchant Marine]] ship,<ref name=UCLAarticle>2005 UCLA International Institute blog reporting on the publication of Wolpert's 2002 book, ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi'' http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30808 {{webarchive \|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920074437/http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30808 \|date=September 20, 2006 }}</ref> 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]]—whom he then knew very little about—just two weeks earlier.<ref name=AcademicBackground>1997 ''UCLA Today'' article on Wolpert's academic background {{cite web \|url=http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970328DeathOf.aspx \|title=DEATH OF GANDHI SET SCHOLAR ON PATH / UCLA Today \|access-date=2010-01-24 \|url-status=dead \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604201954/http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970328DeathOf.aspx \|archive-date=2011-06-04 }}</ref> On returning home, he abandoned his career in marine engineering for the study of [[Political history of India\|Indian history]].<ref name=AcademicBackground/><ref>Wolpert, Stanley (2001). ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi''. Oxford University Press. pp. vii</ref><ref name="1997interview">{{Cite web \|title=Rediff On The NeT: Rajeev Srinivasan interviews Stanley Wolpert, Nehru's biographer \|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/mar/01nehru.htm \|access-date=2022-10-07 \|website=www.rediff.com}}</ref><ref name=Essays>Long, Roger D. (editor) (2004).''Charisma and Commitment in South Asian History: Essays presented to Stanley Wolpert''. pp. 6-35.</ref> He received a [[Bachelor of Arts\|B.A.]] from [[City College of New York\|City College]] in 1953,<ref name=WolpertBio/> and an [[Master of Arts\|M.A.]] and [[Ph.D.]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1955 and 1959, respectively.<ref name=Facultypage/><ref name=WolpertBio/> His [[dissertation]] (published as ''Tilak and Gokhale'')<ref name=1997interview/> was on the revolutionary and reform wings of the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref name=AcademicBackground/> 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."<ref>{{cite web\|publisher=American Historical Association\|url=https://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/discontinued-awards\|title=Discontinued Awards: Watumull Prize (1946–1982)\|access-date=2 May 2015}}</ref>

	===Career===		===Career===
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	In 1975 Wolpert was awarded UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award.<ref name=WolpertBio/>		In 1975 Wolpert was awarded UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award.<ref name=WolpertBio/>

	Wolpert was a guest on ''[[Connie Martinson\|Connie Martinson Talks Books]]'' in 2011, promoting his 2010 book, ''India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation.''<ref>{{Citation \|title=Stanley Wolpert - India and Pakistan - Part 1 \|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq9vgYE_A2M \|language=en \|access-date=2022-10-07}}</ref><ref>{{Citation \|title=Stanley Wolpert - India and Pakistan - Part 2 \|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ5YtX8wjt4 \|language=en \|access-date=2022-10-07}}</ref>		Wolpert was a guest on ''[[Connie Martinson\|Connie Martinson Talks Books]]'' in 2011, promoting his 2010 book, ''India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation.''<ref>{{Citation \|title=Stanley Wolpert - India and Pakistan - Part 1 \| date=23 March 2011 \|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq9vgYE_A2M \|language=en \|access-date=2022-10-07}}</ref><ref>{{Citation \|title=Stanley Wolpert - India and Pakistan - Part 2 \| date=23 March 2011 \|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ5YtX8wjt4 \|language=en \|access-date=2022-10-07}}</ref>

	===Personal life and death===		===Personal life and death===
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	Published in 2001, ''Gandhi's Passion'' is a biography of Mahatma Gandhi. Wolpert describes the subject thus:		Published in 2001, ''Gandhi's Passion'' is a biography of Mahatma Gandhi. Wolpert describes the subject thus:

	<blockquote>"[[Mahatma Gandhi]] proved the strength of invisible soul-force. By so passionately embracing suffering all his mature life and fearlessly following his inner voice wherever it led him, Gandhi lived the message of Love and Truth he believed to be twin faces of God. His greatest luxury was to serve those who needed him: the sick, the hungry, people without work or pride or hope. He never gave up his quest to liberate India from imperial bonds of exploitation and to liberate humankind from the shackles of prejudice, fear, and hatred, and from the terrors of brutal racial and religious, class and caste conflict. He courted pain as most men did pleasure, welcomed sorrow as others greeted joy, and was always ready to face any opponent or his own death with a disarming smile of love. He lived to the full his mantra, “Do or die!” Still, he failed to convert most of modern India to his faith in the ancient yogic powers of Tapas and Ahimsa as superior to the atom bomb. He was not, of course, the first or only prophet of peace murdered by a self-righteous killer, nor, most unfortunately, would he be the last. But he was the greatest Indian since the fifth-century B.C. “Enlightened One,” the Buddha."<ref name="StanleyWolpert">{{cite book \| author=[[Stanley Wolpert]] \| title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi \| publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] \| year=2001 \| isbn=978-0-19-515634-8 \| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C \| page=263}}</ref></blockquote>		<blockquote>"[[Mahatma Gandhi]] proved the strength of invisible soul-force. By so passionately embracing suffering all his mature life and fearlessly following his inner voice wherever it led him, Gandhi lived the message of Love and Truth he believed to be twin faces of God. His greatest luxury was to serve those who needed him: the sick, the hungry, people without work or pride or hope. He never gave up his quest to liberate India from imperial bonds of exploitation and to liberate humankind from the shackles of prejudice, fear, and hatred, and from the terrors of brutal racial and religious, class and caste conflict. He courted pain as most men did pleasure, welcomed sorrow as others greeted joy, and was always ready to face any opponent or his own death with a disarming smile of love. He lived to the full his mantra, “Do or die!” Still, he failed to convert most of modern India to his faith in the ancient yogic powers of Tapas and Ahimsa as superior to the atom bomb. He was not, of course, the first or only prophet of peace murdered by a self-righteous killer, nor, most unfortunately, would he be the last. But he was the greatest Indian since the fifth-century B.C. “Enlightened One,” the Buddha."<ref name="StanleyWolpert">{{cite book \| author=Stanley Wolpert \| title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi \| publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] \| year=2001 \| isbn=978-0-19-515634-8 \| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C \| page=263}}</ref></blockquote>

	[[Delhi University]] historian Shahid Amin in his review for the ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)\|Outlook]]'', called it an "empathetic and meticulous biography". He observed, "Wolpert's attempt is to demonstrate through a close reading of Gandhi's own voluminous writings the unique combination of yogic tapas and Christian passion (the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross") that the Mahatma embodied in his body-polity."<ref>http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?211146 \| Shahid Amin's review in [[Outlook (Indian magazine)\|Outlook]]</ref> The biography was severely criticised by columnist [[Swapan Dasgupta]], who wrote in ''[[India Today]]'', "Wolpert's biography is not the work of a professional historian.... it is essentially a sympathetic assessment, a study of Gandhi the saint that only tangentially — and with some glaring factual inaccuracies (like describing the [[Jallianwala Bagh]] meeting in [[Amritsar]] as a gathering of peasants 'celebrating their spring harvest') and sweeping over-generalisations takes into account the environment he operated in."		[[Delhi University]] historian Shahid Amin in his review for the ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)\|Outlook]]'', called it an "empathetic and meticulous biography". He observed, "Wolpert's attempt is to demonstrate through a close reading of Gandhi's own voluminous writings the unique combination of yogic tapas and Christian passion (the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross") that the Mahatma embodied in his body-polity."<ref>http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?211146 \| Shahid Amin's review in [[Outlook (Indian magazine)\|Outlook]]</ref> The biography was severely criticised by columnist [[Swapan Dasgupta]], who wrote in ''[[India Today]]'', "Wolpert's biography is not the work of a professional historian.... it is essentially a sympathetic assessment, a study of Gandhi the saint that only tangentially — and with some glaring factual inaccuracies (like describing the [[Jallianwala Bagh]] meeting in [[Amritsar]] as a gathering of peasants 'celebrating their spring harvest') and sweeping over-generalisations takes into account the environment he operated in."
	<ref>http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010326/books.shtml \| Swapan Dasgupta's review in ''India Today''</ref>		<ref>http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010326/books.shtml \| Swapan Dasgupta's review in ''India Today''</ref>

	[[Pankaj Mishra]], in his review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', described it as a "somewhat perfunctory biography". He wrote, "the best that can be said about Wolpert's book is that while it tells you nothing about Gandhi that hasn't been said before, it doesn't oversimplify its subject." Further adding, "Wolpert mentions [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Nelson Mandela]] as having drawn inspiration from Gandhi's methods. Disappointingly, he doesn't go into the manifold ways Gandhi's distrust of modernity has found echoes among many political and environmental movements around the world."<ref>{{Cite web \|title=Ex-Father of the Nation \|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/15/reviews/010415.15mishrat.html?_r=2 \|access-date=2022-10-07 \|website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>		[[Pankaj Mishra]], in his review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', described it as a "somewhat perfunctory biography". He wrote, "the best that can be said about Wolpert's book is that while it tells you nothing about Gandhi that hasn't been said before, it doesn't oversimplify its subject." Further adding, "Wolpert mentions [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Nelson Mandela]] as having drawn inspiration from Gandhi's methods. Disappointingly, he doesn't go into the manifold ways Gandhi's distrust of modernity has found echoes among many political and environmental movements around the world."<ref>{{Cite web \|title=Ex-Father of the Nation \|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/15/reviews/010415.15mishrat.html?_r=2 \|access-date=2022-10-07 \|website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>

	Ahmed Abbas in his review for [[Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad\|ISSI]], called the book "a valuable addition to the literature on the contemporary history of the Indian subcontinent".<ref>{{cite journal \| author=Ahmed Abbas \| journal=Strategic Studies \| publisher=[[Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad]] \|title=GANDHI'S PASSION: LIFE AND LEGACY OF MAHATMA GANDHI by Stanley Wolpert\| volume=22 \| issue=2 \| year=2002 \| issn=1029-0990 \| eissn=1811-9557 \| jstor=45242617 \| pages=192–202 \| url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/45242617 \| access-date=2023-03-18}}</ref> Diplomat and author, [[Shashi Tharoor]] in his review for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' called it " a smooth, highly readable but flawed book." He added, "Wolpert's narrative is rather bloodless; the characters on its pages are largely just names, with little physical description, social background or political context provided. Two skimpy chapters on Gandhi's legacy are all that justify the book's subtitle.... the book is riddled with minor errors unworthy of a historian of Wolpert's eminence, ranging from the description of [[Ahmedabad]] in 1887 as the capital of [[Gujarat]], a state that did not come into existence till the 1950s, to placing the [[Viceroy of India\|British Viceroy]] in 1925 in [[Kolkata\|Calcutta]], though [[British India]] had moved its capital to [[New Delhi\|Delhi]] in 1911.... Wolpert gives us the saint, but the shrewd politician is little in evidence in this book. And yet Wolpert gets all the essentials right, and he does so in lucid and lively prose."<ref>{{Cite web \|last=Greenway \|first=Phil \|date=2021-07-02 \|title=UKMoney.net and Indianembassy.org \|url=https://www.ukmoney.net/indianembassy-org/ \|access-date=2022-10-07 \|website=UK Money \|language=en-GB}}</ref>		Ahmed Abbas in his review for [[Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad\|ISSI]], called the book "a valuable addition to the literature on the contemporary history of the Indian subcontinent".<ref>{{cite journal \| author=Ahmed Abbas \| journal=Strategic Studies \| publisher=[[Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad]] \|title=GANDHI'S PASSION: LIFE AND LEGACY OF MAHATMA GANDHI by Stanley Wolpert\| volume=22 \| issue=2 \| year=2002 \| issn=1029-0990 \| eissn=1811-9557 \| jstor=45242617 \| pages=192–202 \| url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/45242617 \| access-date=2023-03-18}}</ref> Diplomat and author, [[Shashi Tharoor]] in his review for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' called it " a smooth, highly readable but flawed book." He added, "Wolpert's narrative is rather bloodless; the characters on its pages are largely just names, with little physical description, social background or political context provided. Two skimpy chapters on Gandhi's legacy are all that justify the book's subtitle.... the book is riddled with minor errors unworthy of a historian of Wolpert's eminence, ranging from the description of [[Ahmedabad]] in 1887 as the capital of [[Gujarat]], a state that did not come into existence till the 1950s, to placing the [[Viceroy of India\|British Viceroy]] in 1925 in [[Kolkata\|Calcutta]], though [[British India]] had moved its capital to [[New Delhi\|Delhi]] in 1911.... Wolpert gives us the saint, but the shrewd politician is little in evidence in this book. And yet Wolpert gets all the essentials right, and he does so in lucid and lively prose."<ref>{{Cite web \|last=Greenway \|first=Phil \|date=2021-07-02 \|title=UKMoney.net and Indianembassy.org \|url=https://www.ukmoney.net/indianembassy-org/ \|access-date=2022-10-07 \|website=UK Money \|language=en-GB}}</ref>

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{{Short description|American Indologist}}
{{About|a Indologist|the mathematician|Scott A. Wolpert}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Stanley Wolpert
| picture =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|12|23}}
| birth_place = [[Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age |2019|02|19|1927|12|23}}
| death_place =
| occupation = [[Indologist]]
| alma_mater = [[City College of New York]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br/>[[University of Pennsylvania]] ([[Master of Arts|AM]], [[PhD]])
| notable_works = ''Morley and India Nineteen Six to Nineteen Ten'' (1967)<br />''[[Jinnah of Pakistan]]'' (1984)
}}

'''Stanley Albert Wolpert''' (December 23, 1927 – February 19, 2019)<ref>[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=stanley-wolpert&pid=191623081 Stanley Wolpert (1927-2019)]</ref> was an American historian, [[Indologist]], and author on the political and intellectual history of modern [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]<ref name=Facultypage>Dr. Stanley Wolpert's UCLA Faculty homepage {{cite web |url=http://www.history.ucla.edu/people/faculty?lid=393 |title=Welcome to UCLA's History Department |access-date=2012-10-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930074005/http://www.history.ucla.edu/people/faculty?lid=393 |archive-date=2012-09-30 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.ucla.edu/faculty/stanley-wolpert|title=UCLA History|website=www.history.ucla.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-05-02}}</ref> and wrote fiction and nonfiction books on the topics. He taught at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA), from 1959 to 2002.<ref name=WolpertBio>Professor Stanley Wolpert's academic career and short biography http://www.oac.cdlib.org/data/13030/vz/kt400005vz/files/kt400005vz.pdf</ref>

==Biography==

===Early life===
Stanley Albert Wolpert was born on December 23, 1927, in [[Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)|New York]]<ref name=WolpertBio/> to [[Russian Jew]]ish parents. While serving as an engineer aboard a [[U.S. Merchant Marine]] ship,<ref name=UCLAarticle>2005 UCLA International Institute blog reporting on the publication of Wolpert's 2002 book, ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi'' http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30808 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060920074437/http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=30808 |date=September 20, 2006 }}</ref> 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]]—whom he then knew very little about—just two weeks earlier.<ref name=AcademicBackground>1997 ''UCLA Today'' article on Wolpert's academic background {{cite web |url=http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970328DeathOf.aspx |title=DEATH OF GANDHI SET SCHOLAR ON PATH / UCLA Today |access-date=2010-01-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604201954/http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/970328DeathOf.aspx |archive-date=2011-06-04 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=AcademicBackground/> On returning home, he abandoned his career in marine engineering for the study of [[Political history of India|Indian history]].<ref name=AcademicBackground/><ref>Wolpert, Stanley (2001). ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi''. Oxford University Press. pp. vii</ref><ref name="1997interview">{{Cite web |title=Rediff On The NeT: Rajeev Srinivasan interviews Stanley Wolpert, Nehru's biographer |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/mar/01nehru.htm |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=www.rediff.com}}</ref><ref name=Essays>Long, Roger D. (editor) (2004).''Charisma and Commitment in South Asian History: Essays presented to Stanley Wolpert''. pp. 6-35.</ref> He received a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] from [[City College of New York|City College]] in 1953,<ref name=WolpertBio/> and an [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] and [[Ph.D.]] from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in 1955 and 1959.<ref name=Facultypage/><ref name=WolpertBio/> with a [[dissertation]] (published as ''Tilak and Gokhale'')<ref name=1997interview/> on the revolutionary and reform wings of the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref name=AcademicBackground/> 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."<ref>{{cite web|publisher=American Historical Association|url=https://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/discontinued-awards|title=Discontinued Awards: Watumull Prize (1946–1982)|access-date=2 May 2015}}</ref>

===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]];<ref name=WolpertBio/> 1963-66 [[Professors in the United States#Associate professor|associate professor]];<ref name=WolpertBio/> 1967 [[full professor]].<ref name=WolpertBio/> In 1968 he was appointed department chair.<ref name=WolpertBio/> He was later an [[emeritus professor]].

====Recognition====
In 1975 Wolpert was awarded UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award.<ref name=WolpertBio/>

Wolpert was a guest on ''[[Connie Martinson|Connie Martinson Talks Books]]'' in 2011, promoting his 2010 book, ''India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation.''<ref>{{Citation |title=Stanley Wolpert - India and Pakistan - Part 1 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq9vgYE_A2M |language=en |access-date=2022-10-07}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Stanley Wolpert - India and Pakistan - Part 2 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ5YtX8wjt4 |language=en |access-date=2022-10-07}}</ref>

===Personal life and death===
He married Dorothy Wolpert (née Guberman) on June 12, 1953. They met in an American government class at City College of New York. She went on to become a senior partner in a [[Century City, Los Angeles|Century City]] law firm, and made several visits to India with her husband. They had two sons and three grandchildren.<ref name=Essays/> His book ''[[Nine Hours to Rama]]'' was adapted to a feature film in 1963. Wolpert died on February 19, 2019.

==Bibliography==

===Jinnah of Pakistan===
Among Wolpert's famed works is ''[[Jinnah of Pakistan]]'' (1982), a biography compiled on [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], the founding father of [[Pakistan]]. Wolpert described his subject thus:

{{quotation| Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three.}}

The book is regarded as one of the best biographical books on the life of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

===Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase===
Wolpert served as editor alongside [[Richard Sisson]] of the volume of papers presented at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] March 1984 international conference on the pre Independent phase of the [[Indian National Congress]] and published by the [[University of California Press]].<ref name="SissonWolpert1988">{{cite book|last1=Sisson|first1=Richard|author-link1=John Richard Sisson|last2=Wolpert|first2=Stanley|author-link2=Stanley Wolpert|title=Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-independence Phase|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QfOSxFVQa8IC&pg=PR9|date=1 January 1988|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-06041-8|pages=9–10}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Masselos|first=Jim|title=''Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase'' by Richard Sisson; Stanley Wolpert|journal=Pacific Affairs|date=Summer 1989|volume=62|issue=2|pages=265–266|jstor=2760602|doi=10.2307/2760602}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Kopf|first=David|author-link=David Kopf|title=''Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase'' by Richard Sisson; Stanley Wolpert|journal=The Journal of Interdisciplinary History|date=Autumn 1989|volume=20|issue=2|pages=340–341|jstor=204875|doi=10.2307/204875}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Hirschmann|first=Edwin|title=''Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase'' by Richard Sisson; Stanley Wolpert|journal=The American Historical Review|date=April 1990|volume=95|issue=2|pages=568–569|jstor=2163915|doi=10.2307/2163915}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fisher|first=Michael H.|title=''Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase'' by Richard Sisson; Stanley Wolpert|journal=Journal of Asian History|year=1988|volume=22|issue=2|pages=198–199|jstor=41930730}}</ref>

Participating scholars in the conference include [[Dilip K. Basu]], [[Judith M. Brown]], [[Basudev Chatterji]], [[Walter Huser]], [[Stephen Northrup Hay]], [[Eugene Irschick]], [[Raghavan N. Iyer]], [[D. A. Low]], [[James Manor]], [[Claude Markovits]], [[John R. McLane]], [[Thomas R. Metcalf]], [[W. H. Morris Jones]], [[V. A. Narain]], [[Norman D. Palmer]], [[Gyanendra Pandey (historian)|Gyanendra Pandey]], [[Bimal Prasad]], [[Barbara N. Ramusack]], [[Rajat Kanta Ray]], [[Peter Reeves]], [[Damodar Sardesai]], [[Sumit Sarkar]], [[Lawrence L. Shrader]], [[William Vanderbok]] and [[Eleanor Zelliot]].<ref name="SissonWolpert1988" />

===Gandhi's Passion: The Life and the Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi===
{{anchor|Gandhi's Passion}}
Published in 2001, ''Gandhi's Passion'' is a biography of Mahatma Gandhi. Wolpert describes the subject thus:

<blockquote>"[[Mahatma Gandhi]] proved the strength of invisible soul-force. By so passionately embracing suffering all his mature life and fearlessly following his inner voice wherever it led him, Gandhi lived the message of Love and Truth he believed to be twin faces of God. His greatest luxury was to serve those who needed him: the sick, the hungry, people without work or pride or hope. He never gave up his quest to liberate India from imperial bonds of exploitation and to liberate humankind from the shackles of prejudice, fear, and hatred, and from the terrors of brutal racial and religious, class and caste conflict. He courted pain as most men did pleasure, welcomed sorrow as others greeted joy, and was always ready to face any opponent or his own death with a disarming smile of love. He lived to the full his mantra, “Do or die!” Still, he failed to convert most of modern India to his faith in the ancient yogic powers of Tapas and Ahimsa as superior to the atom bomb. He was not, of course, the first or only prophet of peace murdered by a self-righteous killer, nor, most unfortunately, would he be the last. But he was the greatest Indian since the fifth-century B.C. “Enlightened One,” the Buddha."<ref name="StanleyWolpert">{{cite book | author=[[Stanley Wolpert]] | title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-19-515634-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C | page=263}}</ref></blockquote>

[[Delhi University]] historian Shahid Amin in his review for the ''[[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]'', called it an "empathetic and meticulous biography". He observed, "Wolpert's attempt is to demonstrate through a close reading of Gandhi's own voluminous writings the unique combination of yogic tapas and Christian passion (the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross") that the Mahatma embodied in his body-polity."<ref>http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?211146 | Shahid Amin's review in [[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]]</ref> The biography was severely criticised by columnist [[Swapan Dasgupta]], who wrote in ''[[India Today]]'', "Wolpert's biography is not the work of a professional historian.... it is essentially a sympathetic assessment, a study of Gandhi the saint that only tangentially — and with some glaring factual inaccuracies (like describing the [[Jallianwala Bagh]] meeting in [[Amritsar]] as a gathering of peasants 'celebrating their spring harvest') and sweeping over-generalisations takes into account the environment he operated in."
<ref>http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010326/books.shtml | Swapan Dasgupta's review in ''India Today''</ref>

[[Pankaj Mishra]], in his review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', described it as a "somewhat perfunctory biography". He wrote, "the best that can be said about Wolpert's book is that while it tells you nothing about Gandhi that hasn't been said before, it doesn't oversimplify its subject." Further adding, "Wolpert mentions [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Nelson Mandela]] as having drawn inspiration from Gandhi's methods. Disappointingly, he doesn't go into the manifold ways Gandhi's distrust of modernity has found echoes among many political and environmental movements around the world."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ex-Father of the Nation |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/15/reviews/010415.15mishrat.html?_r=2 |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>

Ahmed Abbas in his review for [[Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad|ISSI]], called the book "a valuable addition to the literature on the contemporary history of the Indian subcontinent".<ref>{{cite journal | author=Ahmed Abbas | journal=Strategic Studies | publisher=[[Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad]] |title=GANDHI'S PASSION: LIFE AND LEGACY OF MAHATMA GANDHI by Stanley Wolpert| volume=22 | issue=2 | year=2002 | issn=1029-0990 | eissn=1811-9557 | jstor=45242617 | pages=192–202 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/45242617 | access-date=2023-03-18}}</ref> Diplomat and author, [[Shashi Tharoor]] in his review for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' called it " a smooth, highly readable but flawed book." He added, "Wolpert's narrative is rather bloodless; the characters on its pages are largely just names, with little physical description, social background or political context provided. Two skimpy chapters on Gandhi's legacy are all that justify the book's subtitle.... the book is riddled with minor errors unworthy of a historian of Wolpert's eminence, ranging from the description of [[Ahmedabad]] in 1887 as the capital of [[Gujarat]], a state that did not come into existence till the 1950s, to placing the [[Viceroy of India|British Viceroy]] in 1925 in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], though [[British India]] had moved its capital to [[New Delhi|Delhi]] in 1911.... Wolpert gives us the saint, but the shrewd politician is little in evidence in this book. And yet Wolpert gets all the essentials right, and he does so in lucid and lively prose."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greenway |first=Phil |date=2021-07-02 |title=UKMoney.net and Indianembassy.org |url=https://www.ukmoney.net/indianembassy-org/ |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=UK Money |language=en-GB}}</ref>

===Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India===
Published in 2006, ''Shameful Flight'' is a chronological study of the last days of the [[British Empire]] [[British Raj|in India]] from the fall of [[Singapore]] in 1942 to the [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]] war of 1947–48.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Judith M.|author-link=Judith M. Brown|title=''Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India'' by Stanley Wolpert|journal=The English Historical Review|date=February 2008|volume=123|issue=500|pages=265–266|jstor=20108446|doi=10.1093/ehr/cem448}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Talbot|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Talbot|title=''Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India'' by Stanley Wolpert|journal=The International History Review|date=September 2007|volume=29|issue=3|pages=670–671|jstor=40110902}}</ref>

Columnist [[Swapan Dasgupta]] in his review for ''[[The Times Of India]]'' criticised Wolpert's 'central argument' for mirroring 'the misgivings of the relics of the pre-War Conservative Party to the management of decolonization.' Yet, he refused to lump him with the Tory "revisionist" historians such as [[Andrew Roberts (historian)|Andrew Roberts]] and [[Niall Ferguson]] and called his central thesis 'intriguing'. He observed, 'The problem is that Wolpert's own narrative doesn't justify singling out [[Mountbatten]] for all the opprobrium'. Furthermore, 'On Wolpert's suggestion that a [[Partition of Bengal (1947)|united, independent]] [[Bengal]] would have prevented the tragedy in the east ignores cruel ground realities'.<ref>{{Cite web |author=SWAPAN DASGUPTA|date=Dec 24, 2006 |title=Operation Scuttle |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/operation-scuttle/articleshow/911827.cms |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref>

==Publications==

===Non-fiction===
*''Tilak and Gokhale : Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India'' (1962)
*''Morley and India, 1906-1910'' (1967)
*''A New History of India'' (1977, 1982, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2008)
*''Roots of Confrontation in South Asia : Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the Superpowers'' (1982)
*''[[Jinnah of Pakistan]]'' (1984)
*''Congress and Indian Nationalism : The Pre-Independence Phase'' (co-edited with Richard Sisson) (1988)
*''India'' (1991)
*''[[Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan|Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times]]'' (1993)
*''Nehru : A Tryst With Destiny'' (1996)
*''Gandhi's Passion : The Life and the Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi'' (2001)
*''Encyclopedia of India (editor)'' (2005)
*''Shameful Flight:The Last Years of British Empire in India'' (2006)
*''India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation'' (2010)

===Fiction===
*''Aboard the Flying Swan'' (1954)
*''Nine Hours to Rama'' (1962)
*''The Expedition: A Novel'' (1967)
*''An Error of Judgment'' (1970)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{C-SPAN|47307}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolpert, Stanley}}
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