View source for Theodore Roszak (scholar)

{{Short description|American social historian, critic and writer}}
{{for|the sculptor and painter|Theodore Roszak (artist)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Theodore Roszak
| image       = Theodore Roszak late 1960s.jpg
| caption     = Roszak, late 1960s
| pseudonym   = 
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1933|11|15}}
| birth_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|2011|7|5|1933|11|15}}
| death_place = [[Berkeley, California]], U.S.
| occupation  = {{flatlist|
* Author
* historian
* professor
}}
| education   = [[University of California, Los Angeles]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Princeton University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
| period      = 
| genre       = 
| subject     = History<br>[[Counterculture of the 1960s]] 
| movement    = 
| notableworks = ''[[The Making of a Counter Culture]]'' 
| website     = 
| spouse      = Betty Roszak  
}}

'''Theodore Roszak''' (November 15, 1933 – July 5, 2011) was an American academic and novelist who concluded his academic career as [[Professor Emeritus]] of history at [[California State University, East Bay]].<ref name=princetonalumni>{{cite web
|url=https://www.princeton.edu/~paw/web_exclusives/books/books0506.html  
|title=Princeton Alumni Weekly 
|access-date= 2008-05-11
|author= 
|last= 
|first= 
|author-link= 
|date= 
|publisher= [[Princeton University]]
}}</ref> He is best known for his 1969 text ''[[The Making of a Counter Culture]]''.

==Biography==
Roszak was born in [[Chicago]], Illinois in 1933 to Anton and Blanche Roszak.<ref name="Smith 2003">{{cite book |author1=Patrick S. Smith |editor1-last=O'Neill |editor1-first=William L. |editor2-last=Jackson |editor2-first=Kenneth T. |title=The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: The 1960s |date=January 1, 2003 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K3436600512/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=2b192183 |access-date=4 April 2022 |chapter=Theodore Roszak}}</ref> The name Roszak is of Polish origins. His parents were Roman Catholic; his father was a cabinet maker and his mother was a homemaker.<ref name="Smith 2003"/> Roszak attended Chicago public schools.<ref name="Smith 2003"/>

Roszak completed his B.A. from [[University of California, Los Angeles]] in 1955.<ref name="Ball 2003">{{cite web |last1=Ball |first1=Terence |title=Theodore Roszak |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3018100100/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=e7adbcc5 |website=Environmental Encyclopedia |publisher=Gale |access-date=4 April 2022 |date=2003}}</ref> He then received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in history from [[Princeton University]] in 1958<ref name="Ball 2003"/> after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "[[Thomas Cromwell]] and the Henrican reformation."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roszak|first=Theodore Matthew|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/2845994|title=Thomas Cromwell and the Henrican reformation|date=1959|language=English}}</ref> 

His academic career began by teaching at [[Stanford University]] from 1958 to 1963<ref name="Ball 2003"/><ref name="Smith 2003"/>  before joining [[Cal State Hayward]].<ref name="Ball 2003"/><ref name="Smith 2003"/> During the 1960s, he lived in London, where he edited the newspaper ''[[Peace News]]'' from 1964 to 1965.<ref>Fountain, Nigel (1988). ''Underground: the London Alternative Press, 1966–74''. Taylor & Francis. p. 12. {{ISBN|0-415-00728-3}}</ref><ref name="Smith 2003"/> He also taught as a visiting professor at [[San Francisco State University]] in 1981 and [[Schumacher College]] in 1991.<ref name="Gale 2011">{{cite web |title=Theodore Roszak |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000085161/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=aa043734 |website=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors |publisher=Gale |access-date=4 April 2022 |date=August 12, 2011}}</ref><ref name=stanfordlab>{{cite web|url=http://shl.stanford.edu/about/events/fuller_conversations_2003.html |title=Stanford Humanities Lab |access-date=2008-05-11 |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070904020308/http://shl.stanford.edu/about/events/fuller_conversations_2003.html |archive-date=September 4, 2007 }}</ref>  He was featured prominently in the "Alternative Lifestyles in California" episode of the 1977 BBC television series, ''[[The Long Search]]''.

His writing career began in 1966 when he started contributing to ''[[The Nation]]'' and ''[[The Atlantic]]''.<ref name="Smith 2003"/>

Theodore Roszak died at age 77 at his home in Berkeley, California, on July 5, 2011.<ref name=death>{{cite news | url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/tgladysz/detail?entry_id=92855 | title = Theodore Roszak (1933–2011) | access-date = 2011-07-11 | publisher=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] | date=July 1, 2009}}</ref>

==Scholarship==
Roszak first came to public prominence in 1969, with the publication of his ''[[The Making of a Counter Culture]]''<ref name=stanfordmac>{{cite web|url=http://library.stanford.edu/mac/counter.html|title=Computing and Counterculture|access-date=2008-05-11|publisher=[[Stanford University]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100322205441/http://library.stanford.edu/mac/counter.html|archive-date=March 22, 2010|df=mdy-all}}</ref> which chronicled and gave explanation to the European and North American [[counterculture of the 1960s]]. He is generally credited with the first use of the term "[[counterculture]]".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/books/theodore-roszak-60s-scholar-dies-at-77.html | work=The New York Times | first=Douglas | last=Martin | title=Theodore Roszak, '60s Expert, Dies at 77 | date=July 12, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Woo 2011">{{cite news |last1=Woo |first1=Elaine |title=Theodore Roszak dies at 77; scholar coined the term 'counterculture' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/la-me-theodore-roszak-20110713-story.html |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |agency=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=July 14, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Homberger 2011">{{cite news |last1=Homberger |first1=Eric |title=Obituary: Theodore Roszak: US observer of social change, he coined the term 'counterculture' |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A262703154/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=fa6bfd50 |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=July 28, 2011|via=Gale}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Theodore Roszak; Historian who coined 'counterculture' to describe the flower power movement and became a tireless champion of environmentalism |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A262580179/AONE?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=a9ce8e92 |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[The Times]] |agency=NI Syndication Limited |date=July 27, 2011|via=Gale}}</ref> According to historian [[Todd Gitlin]], "People were trying to figure out, 'What is this thing that has come upon us?' He named it".<ref>{{cite news |title=Theodore Roszak coined counterculture label |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A261356089/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=1bd2100b |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[Guelph Mercury]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=July 15, 2011|via=Gale}}</ref>

Other books include ''Where the Wasteland Ends'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wade |first1=Nicholas |title=Theodore Roszak: Visionary Critic of Science |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |date=December 1, 1972 |volume=178 |issue=4064 |pages=960–962 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1735702 |access-date=4 April 2022 |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science|doi=10.1126/science.178.4064.960 |jstor=1735702 |pmid=17774504 |bibcode=1972Sci...178..960W }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blumberg |first1=Paul |title=Where the Wasteland Ends: Politics and Transcendence in Postindustrial Society. Theodore Roszak |journal=[[Contemporary Sociology]] |date=1973 |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=591–595 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2062444 |access-date=4 April 2022 |publisher=[[American Sociological Association]]|doi=10.2307/2062444 |jstor=2062444 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erlich |first1=John L. |title=Where the Wasteland Ends Theodore Roszak |journal=[[Social Work (journal)|Social Work]] |date=1973 |volume=18 |issue=3 |page=123 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23710896 |access-date=4 April 2022 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press ]]|jstor=23710896 }}</ref>   ''The Voice of the Earth'' (in which he coined the term for the budding field of [[Ecopsychology]]),<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schwarz |first1=Walter |title=Books: Mind over matter in a mad world - Theodore Roszak, historian of counterculture, has identified the ultimate Green discipline, says Walter Schwarz / Eco psychology |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A170932266/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=f7c60421 |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=March 20, 1993|via=Gale}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hannon |first1=Jamie |title=Reviewed Work: The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology (2nd Edition) by Theodore Roszak |journal=Natural Areas Journal |date=October 2003 |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=373–374 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43912269 |access-date=4 April 2022 |publisher=Natural Areas Association|jstor=43912269 }}</ref> ''Person/Planet'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Gregory |title=Reviewed Work: Person/Planet: The Creative Disintegration of Industrial Society by Theodore Roszak |journal=[[Contemporary Sociology]] |date=March 1981 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=327–328 |doi=10.2307/2066984 |jstor=2066984 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2066984 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref> ''The Cult of Information'',<ref>{{cite journal |title=Reviewed Work: The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking by Theodore Roszak |journal=[[The Wilson Quarterly]] |date=Autumn 1986 |volume=10 |issue=4 |page=155 |jstor=40257076 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40257076 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lovell |first1=Bernard |title=Reviewed Work: THE CULT OF INFORMATION: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking by Theodore Roszak |journal=[[Journal of the Royal Society of Arts]] |date=July 1987 |volume=135 |issue=5372 |pages=612–613 |jstor=41374362 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41374362 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Robins |first1=Kevin |title=The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking Theodore Roszak |journal=[[Sociology (journal)|Sociology]] |date=1987 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=495–496 |doi=10.1177/0038038587021003030 |jstor=42854023 |s2cid=220676418 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42854023 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref> ''The Gendered Atom: Reflections on the Sexual Psychology of Science'',<ref>{{cite journal |title=THE GENDERED ATOM: Reflections on the Sexual Psychology of Science |journal=[[Publishers Weekly]] |date=October 11, 1999 |volume=246 |issue=41 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A56479349/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=4e5ef1af |access-date=4 April 2022|via=Gale}}</ref> and ''Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Losos |first1=Joseph |title=Boomers Glide into their Golden Years Theodore Roszak Presents a Largely Rosy Vision of the Future as the Counter-Culture Generation Grows Gray |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A56370146/STND?u=wikipedia&sid=ebsco&xid=f6634c0e |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] |date=September 13, 1998|via=Gale}}</ref>  He also co-edited (with Mary Gomes and Allen Kanner) the anthology ''Ecopsychology: Healing the Mind, Restoring the Earth'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Blakemore |first1=Peter |title=Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind by Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, Allen D. Kanner |journal=[[Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment]] |date=Winter 1998 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=138–139 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44085560 |access-date=4 April 2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/isle/5.1.138 |jstor=44085560 }}</ref> and (with his wife Betty) the anthology ''Masculine/Feminine: Essays on Sexual Mythology and the Liberation of Women''.

==Fiction==

His fiction includes a cult novel on the "secret history" of the cinema titled ''[[Flicker (novel)|Flicker]]''  (Simon and Schuster, Bantam Books and Chicago Review Press) and the award-winning ''Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein'' (Random House and Bantam Books).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Van Leeuwen |first1=Jan |title=Theodore Roszak's the Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein: A Countercultural Perspective on Alchemy, Gender and the Scientific Revolution |journal=DQR Studies in Literature |date=July 2010 |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=449–466|via=EBSCOhost}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Thomas |first1=Joan |title=The Thomas Review Frankenstein benefits from facelift Female characters spring to life in Roszak's modern version of Shelley classic |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A163507461/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=793d59aa |access-date=4 April 2022 |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=June 3, 1995|via=Gale}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein |journal=[[Publishers Weekly]] |date=March 13, 1995 |volume=242 |issue=11 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A16656417/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=c9384ada |access-date=4 April 2022|via=Gale}}</ref> In a 1995 interview with ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', Roszak said, "For me, nonfiction was a detour I took on the way to fiction," and "But writing fiction is like working without a net, and it took me a long time to write something that was good enough to be published. When opportunities to write nonfiction came along, I took them. [...] But if things had turned out the way I wanted, I would always have been a novelist."<ref name="Maclay 1995">{{cite journal |last1=Maclay |first1=Catherine |title=Theodore Roszak: the monster in the laboratory |journal=[[Publishers Weekly]] |date=April 24, 1995 |volume=242 |issue=17 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A16860140/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=e7b8434d |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref> His final novel, published in 2003, is ''The Devil and Daniel Silverman''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Salvadori |first1=T.R. |title=The Devil and Daniel Silverman (Book) |journal=[[Library Journal]] |date=January 1, 2003 |volume=128 |issue=1|via=EBSCOhost}}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
* ''New York Open Center'' in 1999 for his "Prescient and Influential Analysis of American Culture"
* [[Guggenheim Fellowship|Guggenheim Fellow]] and was twice nominated for the [[National Book Award]].<ref name=stanfordlab/>
* 1995 [[Tiptree Award]] for ''The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein''
* 2009 [[Grand prix de l'Imaginaire#Foreign-language short fiction|Grand prix de l'Imaginaire]] for Foreign Language Novel, ''The Crystal Child: A Story of the Buried Life''

==Publications==

===Non-fiction===
*''The Dissenting Academy'' (1968)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cebik |first1=L. B. |title=Reviewed Work: The Dissenting Academy by Theodore Roszak |journal=[[The Georgia Review]] |date=Fall 1970 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=376–379 |jstor=41396748 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41396748 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hymes |first1=Dell |title=Responsibilities of Dissent |journal=[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]] |date=November 1968 |volume=24 |issue=9 |pages=29–34|doi=10.1080/00963402.1968.11457734 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=W. G. |title=The Dissenting Academy Theodore Roszak |journal=[[The Modern Language Review]] |date=1973 |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=134–136 |doi=10.2307/3726213 |jstor=3726213 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3726213 |access-date=4 April 2022}}</ref>
*''[[The Making of a Counter Culture]]'' (1969)
*''Masculine/Feminine: Readings in Sexual Mythology and the Liberation of Women'' (1969)
*''Where the Wasteland Ends'' (1972)
*''Sources'' (1972)
*''Unfinished Animal: The Aquarian Frontier and the Evolution of Consciousness'' (1975)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Graham |first1=Ronnie |title=Unfinished Animal Theodore Roszak |journal=Fortnight |date=1977 |volume=155 |page=17 |jstor=25546421 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25546421}}</ref>
*''Person/Planet: The Creative Disintegration of Industrial Society'' (1979)
*''From Satori to Silicon Valley'' (1986)
*{{cite book|title=The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking|year=1986|isbn=9780520085848|url=https://archive.org/details/cultofinformatio00rosz|last1=Roszak|first1=Theodore|publisher=University of California Press }}
*''Fool's Cycle/Full Cycle'' (1988) {{ISBN|0-931191-07-6}}
*''The Voice of the Earth'' (1992); 2nd edition (2001), [[Phanes Press]], {{ISBN|978-1890482800}}
*''The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking'' (1994) 2nd edition
*''The Gendered Atom'' (1999)
*Kanner, Roszak, & Gomes. ''Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind.'' [[Sierra Club Books]] (1995) {{ISBN|0-87156-406-8}}
*''World Beware! American Triumphalism in an Age of Terror'' (2006, {{ISBN|1-897071-02-7}})
*''The Making of an Elder Culture: Reflections on the Future of America's Most Audacious Generation''.  (2009) [[New Society Publishers]]. {{ISBN|978-0-86571-661-2}}

===Essays===
*"[https://web.archive.org/web/20080514151905/http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0699/ijse/roszak.htm Birth of an Old Generation]"
*"[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/12/23/RV150757.DTL&type=printable When the Counterculture Counted]
*"[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jan-28-oe-roszak28-story.html Raging Against the Machine: In its '1984' Commercial, Apple Suggested that its Computers Would Smash Big Brother. But Technology Gave Him More Control.]" ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', January 28, 2004.

===Fiction===
*''Pontifex'' (1974)
*''Bugs'' (1981)
*''Dreamwatcher'' (1985)
*''[[Flicker (novel)|Flicker]]'' (1991)
*''The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein'' (1995)
*''The Devil and Daniel Silverman'' (2003) Leapfrog. {{ISBN|0-9679520-7-7}}
*''The Crystal Child: A Story of the Buried Life'' (2013). {{Abbr|Posth.|Published posthumously}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/theodore-roszak/ ''Fantastic Fiction'']

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*"[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/love/sfeature/back_03.html "Social critic and professor Theodore Roszak wrote ''The Making of a Counter Culture'' in 1968]" – [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]
*[http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/08/13/twih.woodstock/index.html "Flashing back to Woodstock]" – [[CNN]]
*[http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R602231000 Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010145601/http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R602231000 |date=October 10, 2008 }} on [[Forum (KQED)]]
*[http://www.williamjames.com/transcripts/roszak.htm Interview]
*[[Maclean's]] [http://www.macleans.ca/tag/the-making-of-an-elder-culture/ Interview: Theodore Roszak]: The Making of an Elder Culture by Anne Kingston. August 20, 2009
*[https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2022/11/15/the-exegesis-of-theodore-roszak/ "The Exegesis of Theodore Roszak"] - ''Apocalypse Confidential''

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{{succession box|title=Editor of ''[[Peace News]]''|years=1964&ndash;1965|before=[[Hugh Brock]]|after=Rod Prince}}
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{{James Tiptree, Jr. Award Winners}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roszak, Theodore}}
[[Category:1933 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American pacifists]]
[[Category:American sociologists]]
[[Category:Neo-Luddites]]
[[Category:San Francisco State University faculty]]
[[Category:California State University, East Bay faculty]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Berkeley, California]]
[[Category:Activists from California]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]