Arthur S. Link
Encyclopedia
Arthur S. Link was a leading American historian and a scholarly authority on Woodrow Wilson
.
, to a German Lutheran family, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
, where he received a B.A. in 1941 and a Ph.D. in 1945. He was the leading specialist on Woodrow Wilson
, with a five volume biography of Wilson (to the start of the First World War
), and edited 69 volumes of Wilson's papers. Although he wrote numerous textbooks, he concentrated his scholarship on the politics and diplomacy of the decade 1910-1920. As a historian of the Progressive Era
, Link made three major contributions. First was to stress the importance of progressivism in the South (a theme developed by C. Vann Woodward
) and the importance of the South to progressivism nationally. By seeing Wilson as a southerner with a Southern base, he broadened the scope of the politics of progressivism. Secondly he located the heart of progressivism in Theodore Roosevelt
's New Nationalism
platform of 1912, and not in Wilson's New Freedom
. The point was that Wilson was a conservative until 1913, when he suddenly accepted the core values of Roosevelt's proposals to use the federal government to reform the economy. Third, Link argues progressivism collapsed after World War I because of internecine conflicts among reformers and uncertainties about how to pursue their agendas further. They ran out of ideas and left the field to Warren G. Harding
. Nevertheless, he also argued that progressivism was stronger in the 1920s than was generally acknowledged and that the underground currents formed the heart of the New Deal in the 1930s.
As Link delved into the manuscripts, he changed his mind, but he usually did not try to rewrite his books. The one exception was Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace (1979) (a revision of Wilson the Diplomatist). He softened his criticism of Wilson's responses to the Mexican revolution
and German submarine warfare
and gave the president higher marks as a war leader and articulator of war aims in the Fourteen Points. Link had previously stated that Wilson would have taken the same unbending stand against ratification of the Versailles Treaty with Henry Cabot Lodge
's reservations if he had enjoyed perfect health. In the revision, he stressed Wilson's deteriorating cardiovascular condition and massive stroke. The medical deterioration made it hard for Wilson to compromise with Lodge and explains, in part, his earlier actions at the peace conference and his dealings with the Senate over the treaty. Link incorporated his new ideas in elaborate notes in his edition of the Papers. At one point, Link was attacked by some scholars for his medical interpretation of Wilson, and Princeton and the funding agencies seemed unsupportive to Link. The long relationship ended on a sour note as Princeton gave less and less support.
Link taught at Princeton University
(1945-1949 and 1960-92), and Northwestern University
(1949-60). He directed numerous PhD dissertations, including those of William Harbaugh (who
worked on Theodore Roosevelt); Gerald Grob (who studied mental health); and George McGovern
(who wrote labor history and whom Link supported when he was the 1972 Democratic candidate for President.) His relations with his colleagues at Princeton were sometimes strained, as with Eric Goldman. Princeton did not eagerly invite his return in 1960—the Wilson Foundation insisted on it as a condition for financing the Papers. Link was distant from the administration and faculty, but enjoyed working with undergraduates—his star pupil was Bill Bradley
, who became a Senator and presidential aspirant.
He served as president of the American Historical Association
, the Organization of American Historians
, and the Southern Historical Association. He wrote 30 books, including history textbooks. Link was recipient of numerous awards including 10 honorary degrees; and two Bancroft Prize
s. An active Presbyterian, he served as vice president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America. He married Margaret Douglas Link in 1945; they had four children (one of whom is now a historian) and four grandchildren. He died of lung cancer at age 77.
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
.
Biography
Born in New Market, VirginiaNew Market, Virginia
New Market is a town in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. It had a population of 2,146 at the 2010 census. New Market is home to the Rebels of the Valley Baseball League, and the New Market Shockers of the Rockingham County Baseball League.-History:...
, to a German Lutheran family, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, where he received a B.A. in 1941 and a Ph.D. in 1945. He was the leading specialist on Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, with a five volume biography of Wilson (to the start of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
), and edited 69 volumes of Wilson's papers. Although he wrote numerous textbooks, he concentrated his scholarship on the politics and diplomacy of the decade 1910-1920. As a historian of the Progressive Era
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
, Link made three major contributions. First was to stress the importance of progressivism in the South (a theme developed by C. Vann Woodward
C. Vann Woodward
Comer Vann Woodward was a preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by...
) and the importance of the South to progressivism nationally. By seeing Wilson as a southerner with a Southern base, he broadened the scope of the politics of progressivism. Secondly he located the heart of progressivism in Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
's New Nationalism
New Nationalism
New Nationalism was Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive political philosophy during the 1912 election.-Overview:Roosevelt made the case for what he called the New Nationalism in a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910...
platform of 1912, and not in Wilson's New Freedom
New Freedom
New Freedom may refer to:*New Freedom, Pennsylvania, a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States*New Freedom, New Jersey, an unincorporated community in Camden County, New Jersey, United States...
. The point was that Wilson was a conservative until 1913, when he suddenly accepted the core values of Roosevelt's proposals to use the federal government to reform the economy. Third, Link argues progressivism collapsed after World War I because of internecine conflicts among reformers and uncertainties about how to pursue their agendas further. They ran out of ideas and left the field to Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
. Nevertheless, he also argued that progressivism was stronger in the 1920s than was generally acknowledged and that the underground currents formed the heart of the New Deal in the 1930s.
As Link delved into the manuscripts, he changed his mind, but he usually did not try to rewrite his books. The one exception was Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace (1979) (a revision of Wilson the Diplomatist). He softened his criticism of Wilson's responses to the Mexican revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
and German submarine warfare
Submarine warfare
Naval warfare is divided into three operational areas: surface warfare, air warfare and underwater warfare. The latter may be subdivided into submarine warfare and anti-submarine warfare as well as mine warfare and mine countermeasures...
and gave the president higher marks as a war leader and articulator of war aims in the Fourteen Points. Link had previously stated that Wilson would have taken the same unbending stand against ratification of the Versailles Treaty with Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
's reservations if he had enjoyed perfect health. In the revision, he stressed Wilson's deteriorating cardiovascular condition and massive stroke. The medical deterioration made it hard for Wilson to compromise with Lodge and explains, in part, his earlier actions at the peace conference and his dealings with the Senate over the treaty. Link incorporated his new ideas in elaborate notes in his edition of the Papers. At one point, Link was attacked by some scholars for his medical interpretation of Wilson, and Princeton and the funding agencies seemed unsupportive to Link. The long relationship ended on a sour note as Princeton gave less and less support.
Link taught at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
(1945-1949 and 1960-92), and Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
(1949-60). He directed numerous PhD dissertations, including those of William Harbaugh (who
worked on Theodore Roosevelt); Gerald Grob (who studied mental health); and George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
(who wrote labor history and whom Link supported when he was the 1972 Democratic candidate for President.) His relations with his colleagues at Princeton were sometimes strained, as with Eric Goldman. Princeton did not eagerly invite his return in 1960—the Wilson Foundation insisted on it as a condition for financing the Papers. Link was distant from the administration and faculty, but enjoyed working with undergraduates—his star pupil was Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley
William Warren "Bill" Bradley is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St....
, who became a Senator and presidential aspirant.
He served as president of the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
, the Organization of American Historians
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...
, and the Southern Historical Association. He wrote 30 books, including history textbooks. Link was recipient of numerous awards including 10 honorary degrees; and two Bancroft Prize
Bancroft Prize
The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948 by a bequest from Frederic Bancroft...
s. An active Presbyterian, he served as vice president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America. He married Margaret Douglas Link in 1945; they had four children (one of whom is now a historian) and four grandchildren. He died of lung cancer at age 77.
Writings and editions by Link
- Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1954).
- American Epoch (1st ed. 1955), textbook
- Wilson the Diplomatist: A look at his major foreign policies, New Viewpoints, (1957)
- "What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920's?" The American Historical Review, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Jul., 1959), pp. 833-851 online in JSTOR
- Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace (1979) (ISBN 0882957996)
- Wilson a biography in 5 volumes: Princeton University Press: Volume I: "The Road to the White House, 570 pages (1947); Volume II: "The New Freedom", 504 pages (1956); Volume III: "The Struggle for Neutrality", 733 pages (1960); Volume IV: "Confusions and Crises, 1915-1916", 386 pages (1964); Volume V: "Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace, 1916-1917", 464 pages (1965) (ISBN 0691045763); no more published
- editor, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson Princeton University Press, 69 volumes 1966-1994
- v. 1. 1856-1880—v. 2. 1881-1884—v. 3. 1884-1885—v. 4. 1885—v. 5. 1885-1888—v. 6. 1888-1890—v. 7. 1890-1892—v. 8. 1892-1894—v. 9. 1894-1896—v. 10. 1896-1898—v. 11. 1898-1900—v. 12. 1900-1902—v. 13. Contents and index, vols. 1 to 12, 1856-1902—v. 14. 1902-1903—v. 15. 1903-1905—v. 16. 1905-1907—v. 17. 1907-1908—v. 18. 1908-1909—v. 19. 1909-1910—v. 20-21. 1910—v. 22. 1910-1911—v. 23. 1911-1912—v. 24-25. 1912—v. 26. Contents and index, vols. 14-25, 1902-1912—v. 27-28. 1913—v. 29. 1913-1914—v. 30-31. 1914—v. 32-34. 1915—v. 35. 1915-1916—v. 36-38. 1916—v. 40. 1916-1917—v. 41-44. 1917—v. 45. 1917-1918—v. 46-48. 1918—v. 50. The complete press conferences, 1913-1919—v. 51. 1918—v. 52. Index, 1916-1918—v. 53. 1918-1919—v. 54-63. 1919—v. 64. 1919-1920—v. 65-66. 1920—v. 67. 1920-1922—v. 68. 1922-1924.