Stephan Thernstrom (November 5, 1934 – January 23, 2025) was an American academic and historian who was the Winthrop Research Professor of History Emeritus atHarvard University. He was a specialist in ethnic and social history and editor of theHarvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups.[1] He and his wifeAbigail Thernstrom were prominent opponents of affirmative action in education and according to theNew York Times, they "lead the conservative charge against racial preference in America."[2]
Thernstrom was born and raised in a working-class family inPort Huron, Michigan. His father was the son of a Swedish-born immigrant laborer and worked on the railroad. Thernstrom was raised aChristian Scientist, but was disillusioned with the faith. His family later moved toBattle Creek, Michigan. Thernstrom received his bachelor's degree fromNorthwestern University and hisPh.D. fromHarvard University, working withOscar Handlin.
Thernstrom held faculty appointments at Harvard University,Brandeis University and theUniversity of California, Los Angeles. He returned to Harvard with an appointment as a full professor in 1973. From 1978 to 1979 Thernstrom was Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at theUniversity of Cambridge.
He is the author of several prize-winning books includingPoverty and Progress: Social Mobility in the 19th Century andThe Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970, which won theBancroft Prize in American History and was described byThe New York Times Book Review as "the best piece of quantitative history yet published."[3] Thernstrom has served as an expert witness for the defense in more than two dozen federal cases involving claims of racial discrimination in schools. He is the co-author of a brief in "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle," challenging the constitutionality of Seattle's racial balancing plan.
He co-authored with his wifeAbigail ThernstromNo Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning, named by both theLos Angeles Times and theAmerican School Board Journal as one of the best books of 2003 and the winner of the 2007 Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship. They also co-authoredAmerica in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible, a comprehensive history of race relations which the New York Times Book Review named as one of the notable books of 1997. Their writings had been awarded the Waldo G. Leland Prize, R.R. Hawkins Award, and the Fordham Foundation Prize, 1997Bradley Foundation prizes for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement, and the 2004 Peter Shaw Memorial Award given by theNational Association of Scholars, an organization of conservative scholars. Their work criticizesaffirmative action programs.[4]
According to theNew York Times, "The couple are much in demand on the conservative talk-show circuit, where they forcefully argue that racial preferences are wrong, divisive and, as a tool to help minorities, overrated. They serve on the boards of conservative and libertarian public-policy institutes."[5]
Thernstrom married Abigail in 1959. They had two children,Melanie Thernstrom ofPalo Alto, CA, a writer, and Samuel Thernstrom.[citation needed] He died on January 23, 2025, at the age of 90.[6]
