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Alan Brinkley

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Alan Brinkley
Born(1949-06-02)June 2, 1949
Washington, D.C.,U.S.
DiedJune 16, 2019(2019-06-16)(aged 70)
New York City,U.S.
OccupationPolitical historian
Known for
  • Voices of Protest:
  • American History: A Survey
  • The Unfinished Nation
Academic background
Alma materPrinceton University(A.B. '71)
Harvard University(Ph.D. '79)
Academic work
DisciplineAmerican history
Sub-disciplineGreat DepressionandWorld War II
InstitutionsColumbia University

Alan Brinkley(June 2, 1949 – June 16, 2019)[1][2]was an Americanpolitical historianwho taught for over 20 years atColumbia University.He was theAllan NevinsProfessor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was UniversityProvost.[3]

Early life

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Brinkley was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Ann (Fischer) andDavid Brinkley,a long-time television newscaster atNBCandABC.Alan was a brother ofJoel Brinkley.He attended theLandon School,a private boys'preparatory schoolinBethesda, Maryland,[4]between 1958 and 1967.[5]In 2011, the Alan Brinkley ’67 Lecture Series at Landon was created in his honor.[5]

Brinkley graduated with an A.B. from theWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International AffairsatPrinceton Universityin 1971. He had completed a 218-page senior thesis titled "The Gospel of Discontent:Huey Longin National Politics 1932-1935. "His advisor was ProfessorNancy Weiss Malkiel.[6]He received his Ph.D. in history fromHarvard Universityin 1979. His doctoral dissertation, "The Long and Coughlin Movements: Dissident Voices in the Great Depression", was directed byFrank Freidel,an authority on Franklin D. Roosevelt.[7]

Career

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Brinkley's scholarship focused mainly on the period of theGreat DepressionandWorld War II.Among his books areVoices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression(1983),[8][a]which won theNational Book Award.Here he argued that the two demagogues were not proto-fascists,but represented genuine popular anxieties rooted in the American experience of the Great Depression. He also wroteThe End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War(1995);Liberalism and its Discontents(1998); andThe Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century(2010), which won the Ambassador Book Prize and the Sperber Prize and was a finalist for thePulitzer Prize.He also wrote two short biographies:Franklin D. Roosevelt(2009) andJohn F. Kennedy(2012).

His essay "The Problem of American Conservatism" was published in theAmerican Historical Reviewin 1994 and sparked scholarly interest in a neglected topic.

He was one of three American historians to have been bothHarmsworth Professor of American Historyat Oxford (1998–1999) and Pitt Professor of American History atCambridge(2011–2012). He was an honorary fellow of theRothermere American Instituteat theUniversity of Oxford.He received the Jerome Levenson Teaching Prize in 1982 at Harvard University, where Brinkley taught for seven years; and the Great Teacher Award at Columbia University in 2003, where he also becameprovoston July 1 of that year.[9]

He was the chair of the board ofthe Century Foundationin New York and chairman of theNational Humanities Centerin North Carolina. He also served as a trustee ofOxford University Pressfrom 2009 to 2012 and of theDalton School.

In 2018, Columbia University Press publishedAlan Brinkley: A Life in History,edited by David Greenberg,Moshik Temkin,and Mason B. Williams. The book includes essays about Brinkley's scholarship and career by many of his doctoral advisees as well as personal essays by friends and colleagues of his including A. Scott Berg, Frank Rich, and Nicholas Lemann.

Textbooks

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Brinkley was the senior author of two best-selling American history textbooks,American History: A SurveyandThe Unfinished Nation.They are widely used in universities and inAP United States Historyhigh school classes. He also wrote the commonly-used AP US History textbookAmerican History: Connecting with the Past.

Brinkley assumed sole responsibility for the ninth edition ofAmerican History: A Surveyfrom historiansRichard N. Current,Frank Freidel,andT. Harry Williams.He had joined the team to help with the 1979 revisions. HistorianEmil Pocock,evaluating Brinkley’s 1995 revision, said it was

Typical of the mass market textbook.... Brinkley offers a traditional narrative of American history. Built around a core of political and economic events, this attractive colored text contains a good selection of illustrations, maps, charts, and other graphics, as well as other features designed to make it stand out among the competition.... This latest edition has integrated additional material on immigrants, Native Americans, African-Americans, and women into the political narrative.[10]

Personal details

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He lived inManhattan,New Yorkwith his wife, Evangeline Morphos, and his daughter, Elly.

On June 16, 2019, Brinkley died at his home in Manhattan from complications offrontotemporal dementia.[4]

Works

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  • America in the Twentieth Century(1960), co-authored with Frank Freidel; 5th ed. published in 1982 – used in college 20th century U.S. history classes.[11]
  • American History: A Survey,originally by Richard N. Current, T. Harry Williams, and Frank Freidel (1961), by Brinkley in recent editions, reaching the 11th ed. in 1995, 13th ed. in 2009, and 15th ed. in 2015 — used especially forAP U.S. HistoryandInternational Baccalaureate Historycourses.[12]
  • 1982Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression— winner of the National Book Award[8][a][13]
  • 1992The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People(2 vols.). Later eds. are co-written by Harvey H. Jackson and Bradley Robert Rice.[14][15]
  • 1995The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War[16]
  • 1997New Federalist Papers: Essays in Defense of the Constitutionwith Nelson W. Polsby and Kathleen M. Sullivan
  • 1998Liberalism and Its Discontents[17]
  • 1999Culture and Politics in the Great Depression[18]
  • 2009Franklin Delano Roosevelt[19]
  • 2010The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century[20]
  • 2012John F. Kennedy: The American Presidents Series: The 35th President, 1961-1963[21]

Awards

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  • 1983National Book AwardforVoices of Protest[8][a]
  • 1987Joseph R. LevensonMemorial Teaching Prize, Harvard University
  • 2003 Great Teacher Award, Columbia University[22]
  • 2006-2007 Scholarly Journal Award by Kathy Walh-Henshaw at St. Mary's Lancaster

Notes

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  1. ^abc This was the 1980award for hardcover History.
    From 1980 to 1983 inNational Book Award historythere were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories, andseveral nonfiction subcategoriesincluding General Nonfiction. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including the 1983 History.

References

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  1. ^Alan Brinkley, Leading Historian of 20th-Century America, Dies at 70
  2. ^ABC News
  3. ^See"Provost Brinkley Will Return To Teaching, Research" November/December 2008
  4. ^abSeelye, Katharine Q. (June 17, 2019)."Alan Brinkley, Leading Historian of 20th-Century America, Dies at 70".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.RetrievedJune 17,2019.
  5. ^ab"Landon Lectures Honor Historian Alan Brinkley".www.landon.net.RetrievedAugust 5,2023.
  6. ^Brinkley, Alan David. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (ed.)."The Gospel of Discontent: Huey Long in National Politics 1932-1935".{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
  7. ^Greenberg, 2019, p. 13.
  8. ^abc "National Book Awards – 1983".National Book Foundation.Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  9. ^"Alan Brinkley Appointed Provost".April 1, 2003.
  10. ^Peter J. Parish, ed.Reader's Guide to American History(1997) pp 692-93.
  11. ^Freidel, Frank Burt; Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1982).America in the Twentieth Century.Knopf.ISBN9780394327808.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Internet Archive.
  12. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1995).American History: A Survey.McGraw-Hill.ISBN9780079121141.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Internet Archive.
  13. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1982).Voices of protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression.Knopf.ISBN9780394522418.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Google Books.
  14. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1997).The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People.A.A. Knopf.ISBN9780679454595.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Google Books.
  15. ^Brinkley, Alan (1993).The Unfinished Nation: From 1865.McGraw-Hill.ISBN9780070078727.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via books.google.com.
  16. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1995).The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War.Alfred A. Knopf.ISBN9780394535739.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Internet Archive.
  17. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1998).Liberalism and Its Discontents.Harvard University Press.ISBN9780674530171.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Google Books.
  18. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 1999).Culture and Politics in the Great Depression.Markham Press Fund.ISBN9780918954725.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Google Books.
  19. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 2010).Franklin Delano Roosevelt.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780199732029.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Google Books.
  20. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 2010).The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century.Alfred A. Knopf.ISBN9780679414445.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Google Books.
  21. ^Brinkley, Alan (June 17, 2012).John F. Kennedy.Thorndike Press.ISBN9781410449641.RetrievedJune 17,2019– via Internet Archive.
  22. ^"Master Recipient List".

Further reading

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  • Brinkley, Alan. “The Challenges and Rewards of Textbook Writing: An Interview with Alan Brinkley.”Journal of American History91#4 (2005): 1391–97online.
  • Greenberg, David. “After Reform: The Odyssey of American Liberalism in Liberalism and its Discontents.” inAlan Brinkley: A Life in History,edited by David Greenberg et al., (2019), pp. 39–52,online.
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