Gutman, Herbert (George) (1928–1985)

US historian. He emerged as a social historian who advocated study of the ‘faceless masses who worked to make America what it is today’ for the goal of empowering social change. At the City University of New York after 1972, his influential books include The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750–1925 (1976). He served on the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (1974–78). Gutman was born in New York City. He was educated at Queens College, Columbia University, and the University of Wisconsin, gaining his PhD in 1959.