Education

PhD, Columbia University, 1972

Fields of Interest

American history (1877-present); American political, legal, and business history

Academic Profile

Professor Gelfand's historical interests center on the development of public policy in response to the challenges posed by the rise of the urban/industrial order in the 20th century. He is currently writing a biography of Judge Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr. (1906-1986), who sat in the Federal District Court in Boston from 1942 until his death. Professor Gelfand has offered courses on the U.S. in the 20th Century and on American legal and business history, as well as graduate colloquia on the modern reform tradition and American historiography, 1860-present.

Representative Publications

• Trustee for a city: Ralph Lowell of Boston (1998)
• "Hub and Spokes: Development Policy in Metropolitan Boston," in Metropolitan Governance Revisited (1998)
• "Boston: Back to the Politics of the Future," in Snowbelt Cities: Metropolitan Politics in the Northeast and Midwest Since World War II (1990)
• "Elevating or Ignoring the Underclass," in American Choices: Social Dilemmas and Public Policy Since 1960 (1986)
• "Cities, Suburbs, and Government Policy," in Reshaping America: Society and Institutions, 1945-1960 (1982)
• "The War on Poverty," in Exploring the Johnson Years (1981)
• A Nation of Cities: The Federal Government and Urban America, 1933-1965 (1975)