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.
John Hope Franklin, as well.
Of course, John Hope Franklin. How could I have forgotten?
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2009/03/john-hope-franklin-19152009.html
I was just at his memorial service:
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2009/06/stranger-in-a-strange-land.html
This is, indeed, a tough year for historians.