Esther Katz, Editor and Director
Associate Professor (adjunct), US History
Director/Editor, The Margaret Sanger Papers Project
Ph.D. New York University (1980)
Office: King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, Room 502
Phone: 212.998.8620
Research Interests
I am currently editing the third volume of the four-volume The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger, published by Illinois University Press. Drawn from over 120,000 of Sanger's letters and papers, these volumes will highlight the public and private life of the nation's most notable birth control leader and her impact on the movement she founded and led, and will trace the intersection of Sanger's life and work with other reformers, activists and world leaders. Nowhere are the complexities and contradictions of Margaret Sanger's life so dramatically apparent as in her own papers. Sanger's writings are introspective and self-aware; they are vital to understanding her motivations, her stubborn determination, her compromises, her insecurities and insatiable ego, her sexual allure, and her restless spirituality. Her letters and journals also provide crucial insights into her personal struggle to balance her roles as mother, wife, lover, and friend against her all-consuming crusade. They explore the exceptional circumstances and sacrifices that women in leadership positions confront. The goal of this edition goal is to provide an accurate readable text of these papers, with annotation to contextualize the documents, to foster broader and more knowledgeable analysis of Sanger and her influence on the birth control movement. In addition to the book edition, I am also working on The Speeches and Articles of Margaret Sanger, a an electronic edition of Sanger's unpublished speeches and less accessible articles. The edition will be mounted on the NYU web site.
Teaching Interests
My teaching interests are in U.S. Women's History and 20th Century History. I teach undergraduate courses in Women in American society (V57.0635); a seminar in the New Deal (V57.0686), the US since 1865 (A57.0010). I have also taught The Progressive Era (V57.0685). As part of my work in editing historical documents , I teach the required graduate seminar in Historical Editing (G57.1012), part of NYU's Program in Archival Management and Historical Editing. Here students are given a group of original documents and out of them create their own historical edition.
Selected Publications
The Selected Letters and Writings of Margaret Sanger, Vol. 1 The Woman Rebel, 1900-1928 (Urbana, Illinois University Press, 2003)
The Selected Letters and Writings of Margaret Sanger, Vol. 2 Birth Control Comes of Age, 1928-1939 (2007)
The Selected Letters and Writings of Margaret Sanger, Vol. 3 The Politics of Planned Parenthood, 1939-1966 (forthcoming)
The Selected Letters and Writings of Margaret Sanger, Vol. 4 Round the World for Birth Control, 1920-1966 (forthcoming)
The Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: The Smith College Collections and Collected Documents Series, (a 101-reel microfilm edition with printed reel guide), (University Publications of America, Inc., 1996, 1997)
Revised: Jan. 2, 2008