Sara Alpern

Alpern is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is the daughter of Rene and Philip Alpern of El Paso, Texas, and formerly of Pittsburgh. Alpern has a brother, Louis Alpern.[2]

Alpern graduated in 1960 from Taylor Allderdice High School. In 1964, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English from Case Western Reserve University. She earned a master's degree from the UCLA in 1968 and a Ph.D. in social and intellectual history from the University of Maryland in 1978.[3]

Alpern is an associate professor in the history department at Texas A&M University, where she began teaching in 1977.[3]

She is the author of Freda Kirchwey: A Woman of the Nation, published in 1987. In this title, "the Nation" refers to The Nation magazine, which Freda Kirchwey, a persistent crusader for liberal causes, edited between 1933 and 1955.[4] Alpern is a contributor and co-editor with three other historians of The Challenge of Feminist Biography: Writing the Lives of Modern American Women, a 1992 collection of ten essays on various feminist figures. Her contribution to the anthology is entitled "In Search of Freda Kirchwey: From Identification to Separation."[5]

She has written on women's suffrage, the history of eating disorders among women, and the history of women in management. She has written articles on cosmetics magnates Estee Lauder and Helena Rubenstein for Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Her 2005 article entitled "Harriet Williams Russell Strong: Inventor and California Businesswoman Extraordinaire" is part of an ongoing book manuscript on the history of women in business.[6]

Alpern is married to Rabbi Peter Tarlow and has a son and two stepchildren. She is Jewish.[6]

• Alpern, Sara (1987). Freda Kirchwey, a Woman of the Nation. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674318281.
• Alpern, Sara; Joyce Antler; Elisabeth Israels Perry; Ingrid Winther Scobie, eds. (1992-01-01). The Challenge of Feminist Biography: Writing the Lives of Modern American Women. University of Illinois Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780252062926.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)