Louis R. Gottschalk
Encyclopedia
Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk (February 21, 1899, Brooklyn
- June 23, 1975, Chicago
) was an American historian
, an expert on Lafayette and the French Revolution
. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago
, where he was the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of History.
. He graduated from Cornell University
with an A.B. in 1919, A.M. in 1920, and the Ph.D. in 1921, under the supervision of Carl L. Becker
. He taught briefly at the University of Illinois, and joined the University of Louisville
faculty in 1923, but resigned in protest in 1927 after a friend and colleague in the history department was fired as part of an attempt by the university administration to abolish tenure
. He joined the University of Chicago in 1927, was promoted to full professor in 1935, and chaired the history department from 1937 to 1942. He was given his endowed chair, the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professorship of History, in 1959. In 1965, facing forced retirement from Chicago, he moved again to the University of Illinois at Chicago
so that he could continue teaching.
From 1929 to 1943, he served as assistant editor of the Journal of Modern History; for three years following, he was acting editor.
He was president of the American Historical Association
in 1953
and the second president of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
.
He met poet Laura Riding
, then known by her maiden name, Laura Reichenthal, while she was a student at Cornell and he was a graduate assistant there. They married on November 2, 1920, and he took her last name as his middle name. However, they divorced in 1925. He later married Fruma Kasden, in 1930; they had two sons.
s.
His books include:
His papers are held at the University of Chicago.
in 1928 and 1954, and a Center for Advanced study of the Behavioral Sciences fellow in 1957.
In 1953 he was honored as Chevalier in the Legion of Honor
and in 1954 he won a Fulbright award.
He received honorary doctorates from the University of Toulouse
, Hebrew Union College
, and the University of Louisville.
In 1965 his students presented him with a festchrift, Ideas in History: Essays Presented to Louis Gottschalk by his Former Students, Duke University Press
.
A series of lectures is named for him at the University of Louisville
. The annual $1000 Louis Gottschalk Prize, named in his honor, is given by the American Society for EIghteenth-Century Studies to the author of "an outstanding historical or critical study".
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
- June 23, 1975, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
) was an American historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, an expert on Lafayette and the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he was the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of History.
Biography
Gottschalk was the sixth of eight children of Morris and Anna Krystal Gottschalk, Jewish immigrants to Brooklyn from PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. He graduated from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
with an A.B. in 1919, A.M. in 1920, and the Ph.D. in 1921, under the supervision of Carl L. Becker
Carl L. Becker
Carl Lotus Becker was an American historian.-Life:He was born in Waterloo, Iowa. He studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Frederick Jackson Turner was his doctoral advisor there. Becker got his Ph.D. in 1907. He was John Wendell Anderson Professor of History in the Department of History...
. He taught briefly at the University of Illinois, and joined the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
faculty in 1923, but resigned in protest in 1927 after a friend and colleague in the history department was fired as part of an attempt by the university administration to abolish tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
. He joined the University of Chicago in 1927, was promoted to full professor in 1935, and chaired the history department from 1937 to 1942. He was given his endowed chair, the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professorship of History, in 1959. In 1965, facing forced retirement from Chicago, he moved again to the University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
so that he could continue teaching.
From 1929 to 1943, he served as assistant editor of the Journal of Modern History; for three years following, he was acting editor.
He was 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...
in 1953
and the second president of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
The American Society for 18th-century Studies is an interdisciplinary group, established in 1969, dedicated to the advancement of scholarship in all aspects of the period from the later 17th through the early 19th centuries...
.
He met poet Laura Riding
Laura Riding
Laura Jackson was an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer.- Early life :...
, then known by her maiden name, Laura Reichenthal, while she was a student at Cornell and he was a graduate assistant there. They married on November 2, 1920, and he took her last name as his middle name. However, they divorced in 1925. He later married Fruma Kasden, in 1930; they had two sons.
Works
Gottschalk published seven volumes on the history of Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette as well as several other books on modern history and revolutionRevolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
s.
His books include:
- The era of the French Revolution (1715-1815), Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929; Surjeet Publications, 1979
- The Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte, Haldeman-Julius Co., 1925; Kessinger Publishing, 2007, ISBN 9781432586119
- The foundations of the modern world [1300-1775]
- Jean Paul Marat: a study in radicalism New York: Greenberg, Publisher, Inc. 1927; Ayer Company Publishers, Incorporated, 1972, ISBN 9780405085666
- History of Mankind: Cultural and Scientific Development--The Foundations of…
- Lady-in-waiting: the romance of Lafayette and Aglaé de Hunolstein, The Johns Hopkins press, 1939
- Lafayette comes to America University of Chicago Press, 1935; Kessinger Publishing, 2008, ISBN 9781436692595
- Lafayette in America, 1777-1783, L'Esprit de Lafayette Society, 1975
- Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution The University of Chicago Press, 1942; UMI books on demand, 1998, ISBN 9780608133690
- Lafayette between the American and the French Revolution, 1783-1789 University of Chicago press
- Lafayette In the French Revolution, University of Chicago press, 1969
- Lafayette joins the American army, University of Chicago Press, 1974, ISBN 9780608133706
- Social Science Research Council. Committee on Historical Analysis
- Lady In Waiting The Romance of Lafayette and Aglae de Hunolstein
- Lafayette : a guide to the letters, documents, and manuscripts in the…
- The Life of Jean Paul Marat (Little blue book No. 433) Kessinger Publishing, 2006, ISBN 9781428600126
- Toward the French Revolution: Europe & America in the Eighteenth-Century… Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973, ISBN 9780684136998
- The use of personal documents in history, anthropology, and sociology Editors Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk, Clyde Kluckhohn, Robert Cooley Angell, Social Science Research Council, 1945
- Generalization in the Writing of History
- "The French Revolution: Conspiracy of Circumstance?", Persecution and liberty: essays in honor of George Lincoln Burr, Ayer Publishing, 1968, ISBN 9780836907834
- Understanding history; a primer of historical method
His papers are held at the University of Chicago.
Awards and honors
Gottschalk was a Guggenheim FellowGuggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1928 and 1954, and a Center for Advanced study of the Behavioral Sciences fellow in 1957.
In 1953 he was honored as Chevalier in the Legion of Honor
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
and in 1954 he won a Fulbright award.
He received honorary doctorates from the University of Toulouse
University of Toulouse
The Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...
, Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
, and the University of Louisville.
In 1965 his students presented him with a festchrift, Ideas in History: Essays Presented to Louis Gottschalk by his Former Students, Duke University Press
Duke University Press
Duke University Press is an academic publisher of books and journals, and a unit of Duke University. It publishes approximately 120 books annually and more than 40 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections...
.
A series of lectures is named for him at the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
. The annual $1000 Louis Gottschalk Prize, named in his honor, is given by the American Society for EIghteenth-Century Studies to the author of "an outstanding historical or critical study".