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- 1925-2005 (Creation)
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4.31 m of textual and graphic records and publications (22 boxes)
35 digital files (4 MB)
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Name of creator
Biographical history
Milton Israel was born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 27, 1936 and obtained a Bachelor of Science from Trinity College (Hartford) in 1958. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan where he received an M.A. in 1960 and Ph. D in 1965. His doctoral thesis in history was a study of “The Anglo-Indian in defense of authority, 1905-1910”.
It was during his last year of study for his doctorate that Milton Israel was hired as a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Two years after joining the University in 1966 he was promoted to Assistant Professor. In addition to his teaching and research he served as Assistant to the Dean, School of Graduate Studies from 1967-1970. In 1971 he was promoted to Associate Professor. Through the 1970’s and 1980’s Prof. Israel held a number of administrative appointments and served on a number of University and departmental committees and task forces. These included his service as Vice-provost from 1974-1979, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on International Exchange and cooperation (1981-1987), Board of Directors, OISE (1984-1987), Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Foreign Students (1984-1986), SGS review committee on the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (1984) and Advisory Committee on the professorship of ethnic studies (1989 -). In the 1990’s he served as Director, Graduate Centre for South Asian Studies. He retired from the University in July 2002.
During his career, Prof. Israel wrote and published extensively on South Asians in Ontario, Canada and abroad. His body of work includes two books Communications and power: studies on propaganda and the press in the Indian nationalist struggle 1920-1947 (Cambridge University Press, 1994) and In the further soil: a social history of Indo-Canadians in Ontario (Toronto: TOPIC, 1994). In addition he has been the editor or co-editor of many books, contributed chapters to other books, published articles and reviews, and reports.
In addition to his teaching, research and publication activities, Prof. Israel has been actively involved in the Ontario and Toronto multicultural community. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario since 1976 and has served as its Chairman since 1990. As Chair of the MHSO, he promoted and actively participated in the collaborative production of a book and exhibition entitled “Safe Haven. The refugee experience of five families” with the Royal Ontario Museum. In addition he was a major participant in the MHSO publication Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples published in 1999. Prof. Israel has chaired the Academic Advisory Committee, Asia Television since 1994, and has served as member of the boards of Maneka Thakkar and Company, Alliance for Ontario Universities and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.
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Records document Milton Israel’s graduate studies at University of Michigan, and his publishing, teaching and research activities as Professor of South Asian Studies in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. The records relating to his graduate studies consist of research notes and some footnote drafts for his doctoral thesis “The Anglo-Indian in defense of authority, 1905-1910”.
A significant portion of the B2002-0009 accession documents his research and teaching activities relating to South Asian settlement and migration during the 1990s and includes course materials for HIST 394, a course he developed on this topic. In addition there is correspondence and reports relating to the Sikh Studies program in the Department for the Study of Religion developed at the time he was Director for the Centre for South Asian Studies.
The B2011-0004 accession contributes significantly to his research and teaching activities, including course materials and lecture notes for HIS 101, HUM 101, HIS 232, HIS 282, HIS 364 and HIS 394, relating to British colonialism, the history of India and particularly modern India, and South Asian civilization and migration. Also included are several popular lectures and seminars that Professor Israel gave over the course of his career.
Records documenting his publication activities in Series 4 focus on primarily three projects: his book In the future soil: a social history of the Indo-Canadians in Ontario (1994), his work on Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples (1999) while he was Chair of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario and “Safe Haven. The refugee experience of five families”, a book and exhibition produced in cooperation with the Royal Ontario Museum. Accession B2011-0004 also includes notes and correspondence regarding several published reviews and articles by Professor Israel, as well as reviews of these key publications.
An earlier accession (B1995-0052) is represented in Series 6, and includes correspondence, research material, notes and card files relating to, with drafts of, Milton Israel's book, "Communications and Power: propaganda and the press in the Indian Nationalist Struggle, 1920-1947" (1994).
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Dates of creation revision deletion
- Original finding aid for B2002-0009 by Garron Wells Nov 2002; revised Sept 2004; revised to include B2011-0004 by Marilyn Nazar, July 2011
- Added to AtoM by Karen Suurtamm, June 2016
- Finding aid revised by E. Sommers, July 2018 and uploaded to Discover Archives
- 2024-02-26 E. Sommers: updated extent to include digital files from floppy disks