Avery Craven
Avery Craven | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | January 21, 1980 Chesterton, Indiana, United States | (aged 94)
Alma mater | Simpson College (B.A., 1908); Harvard University (M.A., 1914) University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1923) |
Occupation(s) | Scholar, historian, author, professor |
Honors | President of the Organization of American Historians (1963-1964) |
Avery Odelle Craven (August 12, 1885 – January 21, 1980) was an American historian who wrote extensively about the
Early life and education
Craven was born near Ackworth, Iowa. His parents were Quakers who left North Carolina because of slavery and racism. Craven graduated from Simpson College (affiliated with the Methodist Church) in Indianola, Iowa, in 1908, and at his death he left his library and papers to that institution.
After briefly teaching at Simpson College and North High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Craven moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was influenced by Frederick Jackson Turner and earned an M.A. from Harvard in 1914.
Craven then married and taught at North Division High School in
Career
Craven first taught at the graduate level at
Views
Craven was a leader of the "revisionist" historians in the 1930s who said the Civil War was caused by a failure of democracy. He rejected the "progressive" school of Charles A. Beard, which argued the war was an inevitable conflict between the agrarian South and the industrial North.
Craven increasingly took a pro-Southern and even pro-slavery position on the causes of the Civil War. His explanation of the war was basically psychological and argued, according to John David Smith that "fear, suspicion, passion, propaganda, distortion" caused the war. Craven especially emphasized exaggerated abolitionist attacks on slavery and argued that the war could have been avoided if selfish politicians had not escalated the psychological fears to their own advantage.[2]
In his first book Craven argued that tobacco caused systematic soil depletion that shaped both agricultural development and the broader socio-economic order. Agriculture in Virginia and Maryland relied on a single crop and exploitative practices, causing declining yields and exhausted lands. Land that had originally been highly fertile became useless and was abandoned on a wide scale. Planters realized the waste and knew they would have to move on to fresh land. The lack of proper plowing and cultivation methods led to destructive erosion, while continuous replanting depleted essential plant nutrients and encouraged harmful soil organisms. The failure to add organic matter or fertilizers worsened the situation. As a result, expansion became necessary to maintain productivity, leading to social, economic, and political conflicts, as well as a decline in living standards. Although some observers blamed slavery as a major cause, Craven discounts its role in soil exhaustion.[3]
Death and legacy
Craven died in Chesterton, Indiana, in 1980 and his remains were returned for burial in Iowa. His alma mater, Simpson College, received his library and papers.[4]
Until July 2020, the
Works
- Craven, Avery. Soil exhaustion as a factor in the agricultural history of Virginia and Maryland, 1606–1860 (1926, reprinted University of South Carolina Press, 2006)
- Craven, Avery O. "The Agricultural Reformers of the Ante-Bellum South." American Historical Review 33.2 (1928) pp: 302–314. in JSTOR
- Craven, Avery O. "Poor whites and Negroes in the antebellum South." Journal of Negro History (1930) pp: 14–25. in JSTOR
- Craven, Avery. Edmund Ruffin, Southerner: A Study in Session (1932).
- Craven, Avery. "Coming of the War Between the States An Interpretation." Journal of Southern History (1936) 2#3 pp: 303–322. in JSTOR
- Craven, Avery. "Frederick Jackson Turner." kn The Marcus W. Jernegan Essays in American Historiography (1937) pp: 252–270.
- Craven, Avery. "The 'Turner Theories' and the South." Journal of Southern History (1939) 5#3 pp: 291–314. in JSTOR
- Craven, Avery. "The 1840s and the Democratic Process." Journal of Southern History (1950) 16#2 pp: 161–176. in JSTOR
- Craven, Avery. The growth of Southern nationalism, 1848–1861 (LSU Press, 1953)
- Craven, Avery. The coming of the Civil War (University of Chicago Press, 1957)
- Craven, Avery. An historian and the Civil War (University of Chicago Press, 1964)
- Craven, Avery. Reconstruction:the Ending of the Civil War (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. 1968)
- Craven, Avery. Rachel of Old Louisiana (1974)
References
- ^ "Avery Odelle Craven: His Life and Simpson Connections". Archived from the original on 2018-07-22. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
- ^ John David Smith, "Avery Craven" in Clyde A. Wilson, ed., Dictionary of Literary Biography: volume 17: 20th-Century American Historians (1983) pp 126-131
- ^ Avery Odelle Craven, Soil Exhaustion as a Factor in the Agricultural History of Virginia and Maryland, 1606-1860 (1926) pp. 162-163.
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20060912234925/http://www.simpson.edu/library/research/craven.html Craven Archives, Simpson College
- ^ "Avery O. Craven Award". Organization of American Historians. Archived from the original on 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
- ^ "A question of honor makes history". Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine. 2021-01-14. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2022-03-16.