Louis Filler was an American teacher and a widely published scholar specializing in American studies

American studies

American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...

.

He was born in Dubossary, Moldava

Moldava

Moldava may refer to:*Moldavia, historical region in Eastern Europe*Moldava nad Bodvou, town in Slovakia*Moldava , village in the Czech Republic- See also :*Republic of Moldova, a country in the south-east of Europe....

, to Jewish parents, and emigrated to the United States in 1914. Raised in Philadelphia, Filler attended Central High School. He received his bachelor's degree from Temple University

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

 in 1934, and his master degree (1941) and doctorate (1943) from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.

He worked as an historian for the American Council of Learned Societies

American Council of Learned Societies

The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...

 from 1942 to 1944 and then as a research historian for the Office of the Quartermaster General in Washington, D.C. from 1944 to 1946. He taught at Antioch College

Antioch College

Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and...

 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Yellow Springs, Ohio

Yellow Springs is a village in Greene County, Ohio, United States, and is the location of Antioch College and Antioch University Midwest. The population was 3,487 at the 2010 census...

, first as professor of American civilization from 1953 until 1976, and then as Distinguished University Professor of American Culture and Society, beginning in 1976.

His scholarly writings focused on muckrakers, abolition

Abolitionism

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

, and other reform movement

Reform movement

A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...

s. He also edited anthologies and other scholarly works.

He was a Fulbright Scholar

Fulbright Program

The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...

 at the University of Bristol

University of Bristol

The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

, England, for the academic year 1950-1951 and at the University of Erlangen in Germany for the academic year 1979-80.

He died on December 22, 1998 in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

.

Awards

• Fellow, Social Science Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies, 1953–54
• Ohioana Book Award in nonfiction, 1961, for Crusade against Slavery

Works

Books:

• Crusaders for American Liberalism: The Story of the Muckrakers, 1939 ff. (1993 as The Muckrakers)
• Randolph Bourne, 1943, 1965
• Laundry and Related Activities of the Quartermaster General, United States Government Printing Office, 1946
• The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860, 1960 ff
• A Dictionary of American Social Reform, 1963, 1970; revised 1982 as A Dictionary of American Social Change
• The Unknown Edwin Markham: His Mystery and Its Significance, 1966
• Muckraking and Progressivism: an Interpretive Bibliography, 1976
• Appointment at Armageddon: Muckraking and Progressivism in American Life, 1976; Muckraking and Progressivism in the American Tradition, new intro, 1996
• Voice of the Democracy: A Critical Biography of David Graham Phillips: Journalist, Novelist, Progressive, 1978
• Abolition and Social Justice in the Era of Reform, 1972
• Crusade Against Slavery: Friends, Foes, and Reforms 1820-1860, 1986
• Dictionary of American Conservatism, 1987
• Distinguished Shades: Americans Whose Lives Live On, 1992

Edited Works:

• The New Stars: Life and Labor in Old Missouri, Manie Kendley Morgan, 1940
• Mr. Dooley: Now and Forever, Finley Peter Dunne, 1954
• The Removal of the Cherokee Nation: Manifest Destiny or National Dishonor?, 1962, 1977
• The World of Mr. Dooley, Finley Peter Dunne, 1962
• Late Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Representative Selections 1880-1900, 1962, 1978
• The Anxious Years - America in the Nineteen Thirties: A Collection of Contemporary Writings, 1963; as American Anxieties, 1993
• Horace Mann and Others, Robert L. Straker, 1963
• Democrats and Republicans: Ten Years of the Republic, Harry Thurston Peck, 1964
• A History of the People of the United States, John Bach McMaster, 1964
• The President Speaks: From McKinley to Lyndon Johnson, 1964
• Horace Mann on the Crisis in Education, 1965; Spanish translation 1972
• Wendell Phillips on Civil Rights and Freedom, 1965
• The Ballad of the Gallows-Bird, Edwin Markham, 1967
• Old Wolfville: Chapters from the Fiction of A.H. Lewis, 1968
• Slavery in the United States, 1972, 1998
• Abolition and Social Justice, 1972
• From Populism to Progressivism, 1978, anthology
• A Question of Quality, series : Popularity and Value in Modern Creative Writing and Seasoned Authors for a New Season, 1976–80
• Vanguards and Followers: Youth in the American Tradition, 1978, 1995
• An Ohio Schoolmistress: the Memoirs of Irene Hardy, 1980
• Contemporaries: Portraits in the Progressive Era, David Graham Phillips, 1981
• The President in the 20th Century, 1983

Introductions:

• Ernest Lacy, Chatterton, 1952
• John Bach McMaster, The Acquisition of Political, Social and Industrial Rights of Man in America, 1961
• S.S. McClure, My Autobiography, 1962
• G. Lowes Dickinson,A Modern Symposium, 1963
• Robert Lincoln Straker, Horace Mann and Others: Chapters from the History of Antioch College, 1963
• Svend Petersen, A Statistical History of the American Presidential Elections, 1963
• Bernard Mandel, Samuel Gompers: A Biography, 1963
• John Bach McMaster, The Political Depravity of the Founding Fathers, 1964
• William Henry Smith, A Political History of Slavery, 1966
• Ulrich B. Phillips, Georgia and States' Rights, 1967
• Madeleine B. Stern
  Madeleine B. Stern
  Madeleine Bettina Stern , born in New York, New York, was an American historian and rare books dealer and noted Louisa May Alcott scholar....
  
  , The Pantarch: A Biography of Stephen Pearl Andrews, 1968
• David Graham Phillips, The Cost, 1969
• David Graham Phillips, The Deluge, 1969
• David Graham Phillips, The Grain of Dust, 1970
• Brand Whitlock, Forty Years of It, 1970
• William Hapgood, The Columbia Conserve Company: An Experiment in Workers' Management and Ownership, 1975
• Benjamin A. Botkin, The American People: Stories, Legends, Folklore|Tales, Traditions and Songs, 1998

Also in Published Volumes:

• "Movements to Abolish the Death Penalty in the United States," in Murder and the Death Penalty, 1952
• "The Dilemma, So-Called, of the American Liberal," in Antioch Review Anthology, 1953
• "The Muckrakers: in Flower and in Failure," in Essays in American Historiography: in Honor of Allan Nevins, 1960
• "Anti-Slavery Movements in the United States," in Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1962
• "Slavery and Anti-Slavery," in Main Problems in American History, 1964
• "A Tale of Two Authors: Theodore Dreiser and David Graham Phillips," in New Voices in American Studies, 1966

Among Other Articles and Reviews:

• "Susan Lenox: an American Odyssey," Accent, Fall 1940
• "Wolfville: the Fiction of A.H. Lewis," New Mexico] Quarterly, Spring, 1943
• "Murder in Gramercy Park," Antioch Review 11, December 1946
• "Edward Bellamy and the Spirited Unrest," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, April 1948
• "Randolph Bourne: Reality and Myth," The Humanist, Spring 1951
• "Harry Alan Potamkin," Midwest Journal, Winter 1951
• "Why Historians Ignore Folklore," Midwest Folklore, Summer 1954
• "John Chamberlain and American Liberalism," Colorado Quarterly, Fall 1957
• "The Question of Social Significance," Union Review 1:1:66-71, 1962
• "John M. Harlan", Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, eds., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions NY: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995), ISBN 0-79-101377-4

Verse:

• Two Poems, 1935

Sources

• Ohio Center for the Book: Ohio Authors, Louis Filler
• Ohio History: About Historians, Vol. 61 (1952)
• Ohio History: About Historians Vol. 60 (1951)