Academic

Kenneth M. Stampp, 1912-2009

By Alfred Brophy

This morning's New York Timesbrings the sad news that Kenneth M. Stampp, a towering figure in American history, has passed away.  Stampp was best known for his 1956 book The Peculiar Institution.  Though published more than fifty years ago, the book still sparkles--I return to it frequently for guidance about how to talk about slavery.  Though the first book that I read by Stampp was his 1990 book, America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink.  That book first opened me to the idea that limited time periods -- like a year in that case, or even a day -- might be really good ways of organizing our thoughts about history.  Stampp also wrote an important early study of Thomas Dew, a person who looms large in my current work.

This has been a hard year for historians--with David Donald and Ernest May passing away.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 15, 2009 (boomark / email).