John Morton Blum
John Morton Blum | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | April 29, 1921
Died | October 17, 2011 North Branford, Connecticut, U.S. | (aged 90)
Education | Harvard University |
Genre | Historical |
Spouse | Pamela Zink Blum |
Children | 3 |
John Morton Blum (
Life and career
Blum was born in New York City, the son of Edna (LeVino) and Morton Gustave Blum, a businessman and inventor.
Professor at Yale
Blum was on the history faculty at Yale for 34 years, where he taught and influenced thousands of students. One of them in his large lecture class was future U.S. President
Blum was one of the "Big Three" in Yale's History Department along with C. Vann Woodward and Edmund Morgan,[13] and served as chairman of the History Department in the late 1960s.[8]
After his death, the John Morton Blum Fellowship in American History and Culture was established at Yale.[14]
Historian
Author
Blum is the author of several historical works, including Joseph Tumulty and the Wilson Era (1951) (about President
Perhaps Blum's most widely read work was The National Experience: A History of the United States (1963), a university history textbook he edited and co-authored with
His 1954 book The Republican Roosevelt restored the reputation of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, rescuing it from Henry F. Pringle's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1931 biography Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography, which portrayed him as a blustering politician who never grew up that kept him from being taken seriously. However Blum's prose came under attack: "In contrast to many biographers, Blum is not a natural writer; his style is neither elegant nor smooth. Instead, his sentences are often awkward and clunky and force the reader to sip rather than drink freely."[17]
A specialist on the
In 1980 Blum published Liberty, Justice, Order: Writings on Past Politics, 13 essays containing profiles of 10 political leaders representing the first seven decades of the 20th century, including
He also edited the letters of Walter Lippmann and Henry A. Wallace.
Film and television
Blum made a cameo appearance as himself in the 1983 Woody Allen film Zelig,[18] and he has appeared in various documentaries on PBS such as the American Experience series, including Theodore Roosevelt in 1996 with fellow historian David McCullough.[19] In 1999 he appeared in "The Great War" segment of The Century: America's Time.[20]
Honors and awards
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1960)[4]
- Pitt Professorship at Cambridge (1963–1964)[4]
- Oxford University (1976–1977)[4]
- Honorary Degree from Harvard University (1980)[4]
Works
- Joseph Tumulty and the Wilson Era (1951).
- The Republican Roosevelt (1954) read online
- The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (8 vols.) (1954) (ed. with Elting E. Morison).
- From the Morgenthau Diaries (3 vols.) (1959–1967). "Years of Crisis, 1928–1938" (1959), "Years of Urgency, 1938–1941" (1965), "Years of War, 1941–1945" (1967).
- The National Experience: A History of the United States (with Edmund S. Morgan, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Kenneth M. Stampp) (1963)
- V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II (1977) read online
- Liberty, Justice, Order: Writings on Past Politics (1980, 1993) read online
- Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974 (1992) online edition
- A Life with History (autobiography) (Harvard University Press, 2004)
References
- ^ "Contemporary Authors: First revision". 1969.
- ^ Vitello, Paul (October 22, 2011). "John M. Blum, Historian of Presidents, Dies at 90". The New York Times.
- ^ (Blum 2004)
- ^ a b c d e David M. Kennedy, "John Morton Blum, 1921–2001: Historian of Modern America," Perspectives on History (December 2011).
- ^ "Storied professor dies" Archived December 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The Yale Daily News. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "Ivy League Insider". Harvard Magazine (November–December 2004). Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "A Life with History" Archived February 7, 2005, at the Wayback Machine. University Press of Kansas.
- ^ a b c "Iconic historian passes away" Archived October 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Yale Daily News. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ George W. Bush, Decision Points, London: Virgin Books, 2010, p. 15
- ^ "Commencement Address at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut May 21, 2001". The American Presidency Project. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ U.S. News & World Report.
- ^ "Department of History" Archived April 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. University of California, Santa Barbara. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "From Here to There: A Review" Archived August 24, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. PM Press. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences" Archived September 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Yale University. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "John Morton Blum, 1921–2011" Archived November 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Yale Alumni Magazine. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "John Morton Blum, Yale presidential historian, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Accessed October 25, 2011.
- ^ Stephen Floyd, "Review of The Republican Roosevelt by John Blum" (22 March 2015)
- ^ "John Morton Blum Filmography". The New York Times. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "American Experience". PBS. Accessed October 21, 2011.
- ^ "The Century" full cast and credits. Internet Movie Database. Accessed October 21, 2011.
External links
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- "Memorial Service for Historian John Morton Blum", November 11, 2011
- John Morton Blum papers (MS 86). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. [1]