George E. Mowry
George Edwin Mowry | |
---|---|
Born | Washington D.C., U.S. | October 5, 1909
Died | May 12, 1984 | (aged 74)
Alma mater | Miami University University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Occupation | Historian |
George Edwin Mowry (September 5, 1909 – May 12, 1984) was an American
Early life and education
Mowry was born in
Professional roles
Teacher
Mowry taught thousands of undergraduates and mentored over fifty doctoral students in his career. He allowed graduate students to "make their own decisions and use my own intervention as little as possible in making those decisions.".[4] He worked vigorously with his students when they were selecting their dissertation topics to urge them to select something "significant" but also allowed students to select topics that could succeed without intrusive supervision.[5] His own mentor, John D. Hicks, had played a similar role for Mowry and encouraged him to not write on a second rate figure but rather to find a "big subject." When Mowry suggested the Progressive Movement, Hicks said, "Fine, go ahead. That's big enough!"[6]
Mowry's first teaching position was as an instructor then an assistant professor at the
He left California for a professorship at the University of Iowa but in 1950 he returned to California this time as a full professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles. He served as professor, department chair, (1955-1967) and also Dean of the Division of Social Sciences (1959-1967).
Author
Mowry published five books, co-authored six others and edited three books. He published 10 book chapters, over 50 encyclopedia articles and wrote over 100 book reviews in magazines and professional journals such as
Debate on Progressive leadership
According to historian Michael H. Ebner, "Mowry-Hofstadter-Chandler (Richard Hofstadter, Alfred D. Chandler Jr.) amounted to an inseparable intellectual trio for those studying the Progressive Era in American History."[10] These three pioneers shaped the debate by emphasizing the middle-class nature of Progressivism in the early 20th century and declared that it was a cohesive movement. Their findings were partially challenged by Gabriel Kolko, Samuel Hays, Robert Wiebe, James Weinstein, and J. Joseph Huthmacher, who all questioned the middle-class background of these reformers. Meanwhile, Peter Filene opened the debate on whether progressivism was indeed a cohesive movement. Others have focused on individuals or on individual reforms to add depth to the pioneering work started by Hofstadter and Mowry.[11] Mowry encouraged historians to enrich and expand his profile of Progressive reforms especially quantitative historians who could compile and analyze data on the common citizen. That there was a viable Progressive profile is commonly accepted.[12]
Mowry was the first historian to use President Theodore Roosevelt's papers after 1909 and published a revised form of his dissertation entitled Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement which highlighted the critical role populism played as the "real seedbed" of progressivism.[13] His next work, The California Progressives, (1963) what Mowry considered his most "ablest work" was a group study of literate, middle class progressives.[14] Mowry continued his interest in urban history and in 1967 published The Urban Nation 1920-1960, which was later updated and expanded with Blaine A. Brownell (1981).
Professional leadership roles
Mowry was elected as president of the Organization of American Historians (1965–66), and for years was the chairman of its executive committee. He also served as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission's Historical Advisory Committee from 1967 to 1969. He was a member of the editorial board of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1949–52) and a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Historian Thomas D. Clark characterized Mowry as a man of "absolute integrity" and added "keen intellect, broad academic interests, insight, and balanced judgment - all essential to the historian and teacher."[15]
Bibliography
- American Society in a Changing World with C.H. Pegg (1942)
- Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement (1946, 1960) online
- The California Progressives (1951, 1963) read online
- A Short History of American Democracy, (6 editions, with John D. Hicks, 1956+)
- The Era of Theodore Roosevelt, 1900-1912 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958, 1962) read online
- The American Nation, 5 editions with John D. Hicks and Robert E. Burke (1963) online
- The Federal Union, 5 editions with John D. Hicks and Robert E. Burke (1964)
- The Urban Nation, 1920-1960 (1967)
- A History of American Democracy with John D. Hicks and Robert E. Burke (1970)
- Another Look at the Twentieth -Century South (1973)
- The Urban Nation, 1920-1980 with Blaine A. Brownell (1981) online
- Edited. The American Tradition, The Unpublished Papers of John D. Hicks (1955)
- Edited. The Treason of the Senate with Judson Grenier (1964)
- Edited. The Twenties: Fords, Flappers and Fanatics (1963) read online
Notes
- ^ David R. Colburn and George E. Pozzetta, "Interview with George Mowry" in David R. Colburn and George E. Pozzetta, eds., Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era (1983) p. 165
- ^ Keith M Heim, "George Mowry: A Historian of Reform" in Colburn and Pozzetta, Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era (1983), p. 153
- ^ Heim, "George Mowry" pp. 158-159.
- ^ "Interview with George Mowry" in Colburn and Pozzetta, Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era (1983) p. 175
- ^ Colburn and Pozzetta, "Interview with George Mowry", pp. 175-176.
- ^ Colburn and Pozzetta, "Interview with George Mowry", p. 166.
- ^ Heim, p. 159.
- ^ Heim, "George Mowry", p. 159.
- ^ Colburn and Pozetta, Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era pp. 183-185
- ^ Michael H. Ebner, review of Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era by David R Colburn, George E. Pozzetta. in The Journal of Economic History, V. 43, 4 (Dec., 1983), pp. 1041-42
- ^ Blaine A Brownell, "Interpretations of Twentieth-Century Urban Progressive Reform," in Colburn and Pozzetta, Reform and Reformers in the Progressive Era(1983), pp. 3-8
- ^ Colburn and Pozzetta, "Interview with George Mowry," p. 171-172
- ^ Brownell, "Interpretations of Twentieth-Century Urban Progressive Reform," p. 3 and, Colburn and Pozzetta, "Interview with George Mowry," pp. 166-67
- ^ Colburn and Pozzetta, "Interview with George Mowry," pp. 167-168,
- ^ Quoted in Keith M. Heim, "George Mowry", p. 161.