Arthur M. Schlesinger

Who was Arthur M. Schlesinger?

Arthur Meier Schlesinger ( SHLESS-in-jər; February 27, 1888 – October 30, 1965) was an American historian who taught at Harvard University, pioneering social history and urban history. Schlesinger's father, Bernhard Schlesinger, was a Prussian Jew, and his mother, Kate (née Feurle), was an Austrian Catholic. He was born in Xenia, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio State University in 1910. He got his PhD in history at Columbia University, where he was influenced by both Herbert L. Osgood and Charles A. Beard. He was a Progressive Era intellectual who stressed material causes (such as economic profit and conflict between businessmen and farmers) and downplayed ideology and values as motivations for historical actors. His son, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917–2007), also taught at Harvard and was a noted historian. The two converted to Protestantism together and emigrated to Xenia, Ohio, in 1872.

While a student at Ohio State, he was initiated into the Ohio Zeta chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Historical significance

He was highly influential as a director of PhD dissertations at Harvard for three decades, especially in the fields of social, women's, and immigration history.