{{Short description|South African sociologist (1908–1994)}} {{Use British English|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = <!--(filename only, i.e. without "File:" prefix)--> | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date |df=yes|1904|11|24}} | birth_place = Johannesburg, Transvaal Colony | death_date = {{death date and age |df=yes|1994|05|23 |1904|11|24}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!--{{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}--> | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Law, sociology | workplaces = UCLA, University of Natal | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = {{Flatlist| * University of the Witwatersrand * University of North Carolina * University of Birmingham }} | thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )--> | thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )--> | doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )--> | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = Herskovits Prize (1966)<ref name="snac">{{Cite web|url=http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w6t19nfq|title = Kuper, Leo. - Social Networks and Archival Context}}</ref> | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = Hilda Kuper <!--(or | spouses = )--> | partner = <!--(or | partners = )--> | children = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | website = <!--{{URL|www.example.com}}--> | footnotes = }} '''Leo Kuper''' (20 November 1908 – 23 May 1994)<ref>Charny, Israel W. "[http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?public=false&handle=hein.journals/hologen8&page=446&collection=journals Professor Leo Kuper.]" Holocaust & Genocide Stud. 8 (1994): 446.</ref><ref name="independent-1994-05-27">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-leo-kuper-1438982.html |access-date=2 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042629/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-leo-kuper-1438982.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |title=Obituary: Leo Kuper |newspaper=The Independent |last=Kuper |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Kuper }}</ref> was a South African sociologist specialising in the study of genocide and apartheid.
==Early life and legal career==
Kuper was born to a Lithuanian Jewish family. His siblings included his sister Mary (d. 1948), who in later life directed the Johannesburg Legal Aid Bureau.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1950_9_BritishCommon.pdf | title=Union of South Africa | work=American Jewish Year Book | page=298 | first=Edgar | last=Bernstein | access-date=30 September 2020 | archive-date=28 November 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128142956/http://ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1950_9_BritishCommon.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="independent-1994-05-27" />
Kuper trained in law at the University of the Witwatersrand, receiving there his BA and LLB degrees.<ref name="independent-1994-05-27" /> As a lawyer, he represented African clients in human-rights cases, and also represented one of the country's early non-segregated trade unions.<ref name="independent-1994-05-27" /> He supported the establishment of South Africa's first legal aid charity.<ref name="independent-1994-05-27" />
==Wartime service==
Kuper served with the Eighth Army in Kenya, Egypt, and Italy, as an intelligence officer, from 1940 to 1946.<ref name="independent-1994-05-27" /><ref name="snac" /> After the war he organised the National War Memorial Health Foundation, which provided social and medical services for disadvantaged people from all backgrounds.<ref name="independent-1994-05-27" /><ref name="snac" />
==Scholarly and political activities==
In 1947, Kuper went to the University of North Carolina, where he earned an M.A. in sociology.<ref name="snac" /> He was subsequently appointed Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Birmingham in England.<ref name="snac" />
At Birmingham, Kuper directed a research project intended to help the city of Coventry recover from the bombing it received during World War II.<ref name="snac" /> This project culminated in the publication of ''Living in Towns'' (1953).<ref name="snac" /> Kuper completed a doctorate in sociology at the University of Birmingham in 1952, and moved to Durban, South Africa, as Professor of Sociology at the University of Natal.<ref name="snac" />
Kuper was an active opponent of apartheid. Under his headship, the Sociology Department at the University of Natal was the only integrated academic department in South Africa.{{sfn|van den Berghe|1989|pp=158-159}} Kuper and his colleague Fatima Meer were subjected to surveillance by the apartheid government, and classes taught in the department were infiltrated by government spies, resulting in a chilling effect.{{sfn|van den Berghe|1989|p=170}}
During his time in Durban, Kuper co-founded the Liberal Party of South Africa,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Waters |first1=Geoff |title=Liberalism interruptus: Leo Kuper and the Durban school of oppositional empirical sociology of the 1950s and 1960s |journal=Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |volume=88 |issue=1 |year=2015 |pages=43–61 |issn=1726-1368 |doi=10.1353/trn.2015.0020 |s2cid=142756499 }}</ref><ref name="cdlib">{{Cite web |title = In Memoriam Hilda Kuper, Anthropology: Los Angeles |last1 = Leslau |first1 = Wolf |last2 = Maquet |first2 = Jacques |last3 = Nixon |first3 = Charles |work = University of California |date = 1994 |access-date = 2016-05-18 |url = http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb5g50061q&chunk.id=div00059&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text |language = English }}</ref><ref name="cambridge">{{cite journal|title=Hilda Kuper, 1911–92 |journal=Africa |volume=64|issue=1 |year=2011|pages=145–149 |issn=0001-9720 |doi=10.1017/S0001972000036986 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="hilda-odnb">{{cite ODNB|id=95674|title=Hilda Kuper}}</ref> and became chairman of its Natal branch.<ref name="independent-1994-05-27" /> On 6 December 1956, Kuper and Alan Paton spoke on behalf of the Liberal Party at a fundraising event in Durban in aid of the Treason Trial defendants.<ref name="journctd">{{cite book |title=Journey Continued: An Autobiography |pages=161–162 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1988 |last=Paton |first=Alan |title-link=Journey Continued: An Autobiography |author-link=Alan Paton |isbn=978-0-19-219237-0 }}</ref> They and four other speakers were arrested and charged under a segregationist statute, the Natal Provincial Notice No. 78 of 1933, accused of "holding, or attending, or participating in ... a meeting of natives".<ref name="journctd" /> Of the ensuing trial, Paton recalled:
{{blockquote|text=I remember only one thing ... I said to [Leo Kuper] that although this was the first time I had sat in the dock, I did not mind it at all. He said to me, with that gentle smile which was one of his great characteristics, "I don't like it at all."<ref name="journctd" />}}
On 1 August 1957, all six defendants were acquitted on appeal.<ref name="journctd" />
During the 1960s, Kuper moved to Los Angeles, California, United States, where he took up teaching and researching at UCLA and was appointed professor of sociology.<ref name="cdlib" /> His publications include ''The Pity of it All'', ''Passive Resistance in South Africa'', and ''The Prevention of Genocide''.{{sfn|Hance |1968|p=85}} His book ''Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century'' (1981) was particularly widely cited.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?cites=4558015780527514487|title=Google Scholar|publisher=}}</ref>
Kuper was a founding member of the International Council of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Israel W. |editor-last=Charny|title=Encyclopedia of Genocide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Q30HcvCVuIC&pg=PA376|volume=1|year=1999|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-87436-928-1}}</ref> in Jerusalem. In the mid-1980s, he founded International Alert, with the support of Michael Young, Martin Ennals and others.{{sfn|Galchinsky|2008|p=99}}{{sfn|Totten|Jacobs|2013|pp=273-}}{{sfn|Totten|Bartrop|2008|p=131}}
==Personal life== In 1936, Kuper married anthropologist Hilda Beemer, with whom he had two daughters:<ref name="cdlib" /><ref name="independent-1994-05-27" /> the international human rights lawyer Dr Jenny Kuper and the painter and sculptor Mary Kuper.<ref name="hilda-odnb" />
==Works== <!-- This list is misleading, in a number of items Kuper is listed as a co authr whereas in fact he was the author of a review of a book by another author, care should be taken to distinguish between being a co-author and being a reviewer of a work --> # {{Cite book| publisher = Cresset Press| last = Kuper| first = Leo| title = Living in Towns: selected research papers in urban sociology of the Faculty of Commerce and Social Science, University of Birmingham| date = 1953}} # Passive Resistance in South Africa by Leo Kuper (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1957, 256 p., 4 p. of plates : ill.; 21 cm). #{{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=The Background to Passive Resistance: South Africa, 1952|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCm5HgAACAAJ|year=1953|publisher=British Journal of Sociology}} # {{cite book|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo |last2=Watts|first2=Hilstan |last3=Davies|first3=Ronald |title=Durban: A Study in Racial Ecology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S177nQEACAAJ|year=1987|publisher=St. Martin's Press}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=The College Brew: A Satire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HXijQAAACAAJ|year=1960|publisher=Universal Printing Works|location=Durban}} # {{cite book|title=An African Bourgeoisie: Race, Class, and Politics in South Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/africanbourgeois0000kupe|url-access=registration|author=Leo Kuper|location=New Haven and London|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1965}} Pp. xviii+ 452. 21s. paperback. #{{cite book|last1=Kuper|first1=Hilda |last2=Kuper|first2=Leo |title=African Law: Adaptation and Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WSGBAkBSN0C&pg=PA1|year=1965|publisher=University of California Press|id=GGKEY:JB0L2JNY412}} # {{cite book|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo |last2=Smith|first2=Michael Garfield |title=Pluralism in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8h9wAyRsYTMC|year=1969|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01872-3}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=Race, class and power: ideology and revolutionary change in plural societies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YR9JUxYlJOkC|year=1975|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-202-36845-0}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=Race, Science and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5qXqjgEACAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Unesco/Allen & Unwin|isbn=9780231039086}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=The pity of it all: polarisation of racial and ethnic relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6B1qAAAAIAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Duckworth|isbn=978-0-7156-1114-2}} # {{cite book|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo |last2=Kuper|first2=Hilda |title=South Africa: Human Rights and Genocide; Biography as Interpretation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YCjuAAACAAJ|year=1981|publisher=Indiana University, African Studies Program|isbn=978-0-941934-33-6}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century|title-link=Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century|year=1983|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-03120-1}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=International action against genocide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWpFAQAAIAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Minority Rights Group|isbn=9780946690121}} # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo |title=The Prevention of Genocide|title-link=The Prevention of Genocide|year=1985|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-03418-9}} # Cases and Materials on Genocide by Leo Kuper Foundation Staff, Publisher: Routledge ({{ISBN|9781859419298}}/1859419291). # Genocide Reader (Criminology) by Leo Kuper Foundation, Routledge Cavendish, 1 January 2007, 600 pages. # ''"Blueprint for Living Together"'' in Leo Kuper, ed., Living in Towns, London, 1953. # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=L.|title=The South African Native: Caste, Proletariat or Race?|journal=Social Forces|volume=28|issue=2|year=1949|pages=146–153|issn=0037-7732|doi=10.2307/2572640|jstor=2572640}} # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo|title=Review of 'White Settlers and Native Peoples'|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_british-journal-of-sociology_1950-12_1_4/page/362|journal=The British Journal of Sociology|volume=1|issue=4|year=1950|pages=363|issn=0007-1315|doi=10.2307/586900|jstor=586900}} # {{cite journal|title=Social Science Research and the Planning of Urban Neighbourhoods|first= Leo|last= Kuper|journal= Social Science Research and the Planning of Urban Neighbourhoods|volume=29|year= 1951| pages=237–243|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/josf29&div=48&id=&page=}} # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo|title=The Background to Passive Resistance (South Africa, 1952)|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_british-journal-of-sociology_1953-09_4_3/page/242|journal=The British Journal of Sociology|volume=4|issue=3|year=1953|pages=243–256|issn=0007-1315|doi=10.2307/587540|jstor=587540}} # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=L.|title=The Control of Social Change: A South African Experiment|journal=Social Forces|volume=33|issue=1|year=1954|pages=19–29|issn=0037-7732|doi=10.2307/2573139|jstor=2573139}} # ''"Techniques. of Social Control in South Africa"'' by Leo Kuper, Listener 55, 31 May 1956, pp. 708. # "''Rights and riots in Natal''" by Leo Kuper In Africa South, Vol.4, No.2, Jan–Mar 1960, pp. 20–26. # ''"The Heightening of Racial Tension"'' by Leo Kuper, In The Heightening of Racial Tension, Vol.2, 1960, pp. 24–32. # ''"Ethnic and Racial Pluralism: Some Aspects of Polarization and Depluralization."'' In Leo Kuper and MG. Smith, M.G. (Eds) Pluralism in Africa. Berkeley and Los # ''"Racialism and Integration in South African Society"'' by Leo Kuper, In Racialism and Integration in South African Society, Vol.4, 1963, pp. 26–31. # ''"The problem of violence in South Africa"'' by Leo Kuper, in Inquiry (Taylor & Francis), Vol.7 (1–4), 1964, pages 295–303. # ''"Book Review: Caneville: The Social Structure of a South African Town. Pierre L. Van Den Berghe, Edna Miller"'' by Leo Kuper, In American Journal of Sociology, Vol.71 (1), 1965, pp. 115. # ''"Neighbour on the Hearth."'' by Leo Kuper – Environmental Psychology: Man and His Physical Setting, edited by H. M. Proshansky, W. H. Ittelson and L. G. Rivlin, (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970). # ''"Continuities and Discontinuities in Race Relations: Evolutionary or Revolutionary Change"'' by Leo Kuper in Cahiers d'études africaines ( published by EHESS ), Vol. 10, Cahier 39, 1970, pp. 361–383. # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo|title=Theories of Revolution and Race Relations*|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=13|issue=1|year=2009|pages=87–107|issn=0010-4175|doi=10.1017/S0010417500006125}} # ''"African Nationalism in South Africa, 1910–1964"'' by Leo Kuper in The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol. II, M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971, pp. 424–476. # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo|title=Race, Class and Power: Some Comments on Revolutionary Change|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=14|issue=4|year=2009|pages=400–421|issn=0010-4175|doi=10.1017/S0010417500006782}} # {{cite journal|last1=Kuper|first1=Leo|title=Censorship by proxy|journal=Index on Censorship |volume=4|issue=3 |year=1975|pages=48–50|issn=0306-4220|doi=10.1080/03064227508532449|s2cid=144663151}} # ''"Book Review: Ethnicity and Resource Competition in Plural Societies. Leo A. Despres"'' by Leo Kuper, In American Journal of Sociology, Vol.82 (5), 1977, pp. 1146. # ''"Types of Genocide and Mass Murder"'' by Leo Kuper, In Israel W. Charny (ed.) Toward the understanding and prevention of genocide: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1984, pages 32–47. # {{cite book|last=Kuper|first=Leo|editor=Richard G. Hovannisian|title=The Armenian Genocide in Perspective |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pDTnlYtAKAMC&pg=PA43|year=2009|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-0891-0|chapter=The Turkish genocide of Armenians, 1915–1917}} # ''"The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide."'', by Robert Jay Lifton and by '''Leo Kuper''', Political Science Quarterly, Vol.102 (1), March 1987, pp. 175. # ''"In the Belly of the Beast: The Modern State as Mass Murderer"'' by Robin M. Williams, '''Leo Kuper''', in Contemporary Sociology, Vol.16 (4), 1987, pp. 502. # ''"Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death"'' by '''Leo Kuper''', Isidor Walliman, Michael N. Dobkowski, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.17 (1), 1988, pp. 24. # {{Cite journal| doi = 10.2307/2073343<!--| issn = 0094-3061-->|issn= 1939-8638| volume = 18| issue = 5| pages = 753–755| last = Kuper| first = Leo| others = Robert N. Proctor (ed.)| title = Biology as Destiny: The Scientific Mystifications of Medical Mass Murder| journal = Contemporary Sociology| date = 1989| jstor = 2073343}} # ''"Theological warrants for genocide: Judaism, Islam and Christianity"'' by Leo Kuper – Terrorism and Political Violence, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1990, pages 351–379. # ''"On Jewish Disconnection from Other Genocides."'' by Leo Kuper – Internet on the Holocaust and Genocide, Issues 49–50, Special Section, 1990, p. 7. # Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, 2nd edition by Robert Melson, '''Leo Kuper''' (Introduction), '''Leo Kuper''' (Foreword by) # {{cite journal|last=Kuper|first= L.|year=1990|title= The genocidal state: an overview|journal= State Violence and Ethnicity| pages=19–51}} # ''"The Genocidal State: An Overview"'', by Leo Kuper in Pierre L. van den Berghe, ed., State Violence and Ethnicity (Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado), 1990, pp. 44. # ''"The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence."'' by '''Leo Kuper''', Ervin Staub, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.19 (5), 1990, pp. 683. # ''"The Genocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and Nuclear Threat"'' by '''Leo Kuper''', Robert Jay Lifton, Erik Markusen, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.20 (2), 1991, pp. 217. # ''"Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917"'' by '''Leo Kuper''', R. J. Rummel, In Contemporary Sociology, Vol.20 (3), 1991, pp. 433. # ''"Reflections on the Prevention of Genocide,"'' by Leo Kuper in Helen Fein (Ed.) Genocide Watch. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992, pp. 135–161. # ''"Theoretical Issues relating to Genocide: Uses and Abuses"'' by Leo Kuper in G.J. Andreopoulos (ed.), Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1994, p. 31–46.
==Notes and references==
{{Reflist}} {{refbegin}} *{{cite book|last=Galchinsky|first=Michael |title=Jews and Human Rights: Dancing at Three Weddings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUUuFeeM1OwC&pg=PA99|year=2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-5267-8}} *{{cite book|last1=Totten|first1=Samuel |last2=Jacobs|first2=Steven Leonard |title=Pioneers of Genocide Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMzM5Q2Mxv8C&pg=PA273|year=2013|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-4974-6}} *{{cite book|last1=Totten|first1=Samuel |last2=Bartrop|first2=Paul Robert|title=Dictionary of Genocide: A-L|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rgGA91skoP4C&pg=PA131|volume=1: A-L|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34642-2}} *{{cite book|last1=van den Berghe|first1=Pierre |author-link=Pierre L. van den Berghe|title=Stranger in their Midst|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ao0iAAAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=University Press of Colorado|isbn=0870812025}} *{{Cite web | title = Leo Kuper, 85, Dies; Wrote on Genocide | author = | work = The New York Times | date = 29 May 1994 | access-date = 2016-05-18 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/29/obituaries/leo-kuper-85-dies-wrote-on-genocide.html | quote = }} *{{cite journal|last1=Charny|first1=Israel W.|title=In Memoriam: Professor Leo Kuper|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|volume=8|issue=3|year=1994|pages=446–447|issn=8756-6583|doi=10.1093/hgs/8.3.446}} *{{cite book|last=Hance|first=William A. |title=Southern Africa and the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/southernafricau00hanc|url-access=registration|year=1968|publisher=New York, Columbia University Press }} {{refend}}
==External links== *[http://www.genocidewatch.org/ Leo Kuper Foundation website ?] *[http://catalog.crl.edu/search/Y?SEARCH=leo+kuper&searchscope=1 Research biography and collection details] *[http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt9t1nb5sg&doc.view=entire_text&brand=oac Collections archived by University of California]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuper, Leo}} Category:1908 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century South African lawyers Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists Category:South African anti-apartheid activists Category:Genocide education Category:Liberal Party of South Africa politicians Category:Writers from Johannesburg Category:South African emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century South African Jews Category:South African people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:Politicians from Johannesburg Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty Category:White South African anti-apartheid activists Category:ASA Best Book Prize winners Category:Genocide studies scholars