Richard B. Morris
Richard B. Morris | |
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PhD ) | |
Spouse | Berenice Robinson |
Children | 2 sons |
Richard Brandon Morris (July 24, 1904 – March 3, 1989) was an American historian best known for his pioneering work in colonial American legal history and the early history of American labor. In later years, he shifted his research interests to the constitutional, diplomatic, and political history of the
Background
Richard Brandon Morris was born on July 24, 1904, in
Career
City College of New York
In 1927, Morris began teaching History at the City College of New York until in 1946 he was named to the faculty of Columbia University, after having published Government and Labor in Early America (1946).[1]
Columbia University
In 1949, Morris left City College to teach at Columbia University. Eventually, he became Gouverneur Morris Professor of History at Columbia (no relation), Richard B. Morris continued his pioneering research and writing.[1]
Morris was privately opposed to the
Project '87
In 1976, following the general scholarly disappointment with the bicentennial of the American Revolution, Morris, then president of the American Historical Association,[4] joined with James MacGregor Burns, then president of the American Political Science Association, to found Project '87—a joint effort to mark the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Project '87 brought together historians, political scientists, and legal scholars and managed to salvage the Constitution's bicentennial as an occasion for the publication of groundbreaking new historical and legal scholarship on the Constitution and its origins. Morris's own contribution to the Bicentennial, and the culmination of his life's work as a historian, was The Forging of the Union, 1781–1789, his 1987 volume for the New American Nation series.
Personal life and death
In 1930, Morris married Berenice Robinson; they had two sons, Jeffrey B. Morris, a constitutional and legal historian who teaches at the Touro Law School in New York, and Donald R. Morris, a teacher in Wyoming.[1]
Morris died age 84 in New York City of melanoma cancer.[1]
Works
Columbia University colleague
- Richard B. Morris, Studies in the Early History of American Law, With Special Reference to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1930, 1959)
- Richard B. Morris, Government and Labor in Early America (1946)[6]
- Richard B. Morris, Encyclopedia of American History (1953 and later editions)
- Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence (1965)
- Richard B. Morris, The American Revolution Reconsidered (1966)
- Richard B. Morris, John Jay, the Nation, and the Court (1967)
- Richard B. Morris, Fair Trial: Fourteen Who Stood Accused, from Anne Hutchinson to Alger Hiss (1967)[7]
- Richard B. Morris, The Emerging Nations and the American Revolution (1970)
- Richard B. Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries (1973)
- Richard B. Morris, ed., John Jay: Unpublished Papers, 1743–1780 (1976)
- Richard B. Morris, "The American Revolution as an Anti-colonial War" in Conspectus of History (1976)
- Richard B. Morris, ed., John Jay: Unpublished Papers, 1780–1784 (1980)
- Richard B. Morris, Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution (1985)
- Richard B. Morris, The Forging of the Union, 1781–1789 (1987)
Awards
- 1966: Bancroft Prize in History for The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Peter B. Flint (March 6, 1989). "Richard B. Morris, Colonial Historian, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
- ^ Jackson, Kenneth T. (1995). Encyclopedia of the City of New York. Yale University Press. p. 772.
- ^ "Richard B. Morris and the Columbia Riots of 1968: The Truth Finally is Out | History News Network".
- ^ "Richard B. Morris". American Historical Association. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
- ^ "In Memoriam", Perspectives, American Historical Association, May-June 1989
- ^ Morris, Richard B. (1946). Government and Labor in Early America. Columbia University Press. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
- ^ Morris, Richard B. (1967). Fair Trial: Fourteen Who Stood Accused, from Anne Hutchinson to Alger Hiss. Retrieved April 28, 2019.
Further reading
- Bibliography of the United States Constitution
- Philip Ranlet, Richard B. Morris and American History in the Twentieth Century. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004
- Alden T. Vaughan and George Athan Billias, eds., Perspectives on Early American History: Essays in Honor of Richard B. Morris. New York: Harper & Row, 1973