Life

Robert Griffith was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Southern Indiana. He graduated from DePauw University

DePauw University

DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...

, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. He taught at the University of Georgia

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

, and at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

. He was Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland

University of Maryland

When the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to the University of Maryland, College Park.University of Maryland may refer to the following:...

. He taught history and was chair of the History Department at American University

American University

American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

.

His work has appeared in the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, Reviews in American History, and Business History Review.

He signed the "Resolution on United States Government Practices Inimical to the Values of the Historical Profession".
He has served on the Board of Editors of the Journal of American History. He served as Treasurer of 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...

  until stepping down January 1, 2011 for health reasons.

Griffith died on January 25, 2011 due to complications from Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Awards

• 1970 Frederick Jackson Turner Award
  Frederick Jackson Turner Award
  The Frederick Jackson Turner Award, is given each year by the Organization of American Historians for an author's first book on American history.It was started in 1959, by Mississippi Valley Historical Association, as the Prize Studies Award....
  
  
• 1980 Guggenheim Fellowship
• National Endowment for the Humanities
  National Endowment for the Humanities
  The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
  
  Fellowship
• Harry S. Truman Library Institute Fellowship

Works

• "Un-Tangling the Web of Cold War Studies; or, How One Historian Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Internet." Journal of Multi-Media History, Vol. 3, 2000
• "Truman and the Historians", April 1974

(1st edition 1970)

Editor

• The Specter: Original Essays on McCarthyism and the Cold War (1974) (2nd edition January, 2001; 3rd edition January 2007)

External links