Engagement with the past : the lives and works of the World War II generation of historians / William Palmer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Palmer, William, 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historians--United States--Biography.

Historians.

United States.

United States--Social conditions--1945-.

Social conditions.

History--Study and teaching--United States.

History.

History--Study and teaching.

United States--Historiography.

Historiography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 372 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2001]

Summary:

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Richard Hofstadter, Daniel Boorstin, Kenneth Stampp, C. Vann Woodward, John Hope Franklin, Edmund Morgan, Barbara Tuchman, Geoffrey Elton, Lawrence Stone, Hugh Trevor-Roper -- aside from carrying the distinction as some of the most successful and well-respected historians of the twentieth century, these scholars found their lives and careers evolving amid some of the world's most pivotal historical moments.

Dubbed the World War II Generation, the twenty-two English and American historians chronicled by William Palmer grew up in the aftermath of World War I, went to college in the 1930s, and suffered interrupted careers during World War II. They lived through the Great Depression, Hitler, Communism, and the prospect of nuclear annihilation, and they gained from their experiences the perspective and insight necessary to write definitive histories on topies ranging from slavery to revolution.

A historiography of amazing scope, Engagement with the Past offers biographies of these individuals within the context of their generation's intellectual achievement. Basing his study on dozens of personal interviews and careful readings of original historical texts, William Palmer gives an insider's glimpse into the lives of these men and women -- their battles for tenure, the opportunities and hardships of academia, and the juxtaposition of writing about the past while themselves living through significant moments in history.

Contents:

Introduction: Writing Historians' Lives ix

Part I Lives

1. Beginnings 3

2. Harvard, the 1930s, and the Making of a Historical Generation 19

3. Other American Colleges and Universities 36

4. The English University Experience in the 1930s 52

5. V Was for Victory 72

6. Building Careers in the Postwar World 89

7. At the Pinnacle (Mostly) 121

8. Teaching 151

Part II Achievement

9. The Cultural Critics 177

10. The Controversialists 199

11. The Archival Revolution 229

12. Synthesis, Printed Sources, and Other Kinds of History 261.

Notes:

Includings bibliographical references (pages [345]-354) and index.

ISBN:

0813122066

OCLC:

46918053