Misplaced Pages

James M. McPherson: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 20:03, 4 October 2005 editUser2004 (talk | contribs)23,415 edits →Democracy Now interview & UDC boycott: rem. non-encyclopedic non-neutral fact ref. (see WP:NPOV) - already mentioned in Sebesta article in fuller context← Previous edit Latest revision as of 15:49, 27 November 2024 edit undoDissident (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users3,725 editsmNo edit summary 
(358 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2016}}
:''For the Civil War General of the same name see ]''
{{Use American English|date=March 2016}}
{{Short description|American historian (born 1936)}}
{{Infobox historian
| name = James M. McPherson
| image = James McPherson 2011 (cropped).jpg
| alt =
| caption = McPherson in June 2011
| birth_name = James Munro McPherson
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1936|10|11}}
| birth_place = ], U.S.
| occupation = Historian
| main_interests = ]
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|] (])|] (])}}
| notableworks = {{unbulleted list|'']'' (1988)|'']'' (1997)}}
| workplaces = ]
| spouse = Patricia McPherson
| children = 1
| awards = {{unbulleted list|]|Lincoln Prize|]}}


}}
'''James M. McPherson''' (born ], ]) is an ] ], and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of ] at ]. He received the ] for ''Battle Cry of Freedom'', his most famous book. He was the president of the ] in ], and is a member of the editorial board of ].
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2013}}
'''James Munro McPherson''' (born October 11, 1936) is an American historian specializing in the ]. He is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of ] at ]. He received the 1989 ] for '']''. McPherson was the president of the ] in 2003.


==Early life and education==
Born in ], ], he received his ] at ] (], ]) in ] (from which he graduated ''cum laude''), and his ] at ] in ]. Currently he resides in ], ], and is divorced with one child.
Born in ], ], McPherson graduated from St. Peter High School in ], and received his ] in 1958 from ], also in St. Peter, from which he graduated ''magna cum laude''. He received his ] from ] in 1963, where he studied under ].<ref name="2000 JEFFERSON LECTURER">{{cite web|title=James McPherson Biography|url=http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/james-mcpherson-biography|website=neh.gov/|publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|access-date=14 November 2014}}</ref>


==Scholarship== ==Career==
]
McPherson's works include ''The Struggle for Equality'', awarded the ]. In ], he published his Pulitzer-winning book, ''Battle Cry of Freedom''. And in ] another book, ''For Cause and Comrades'', received the ]. In 2002 he published both a scholarly book, ''Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862,'' and a history of the Civil War for children, ''Fields of Fury''. Unlike many other historians, he has a reputation of trying to make history accessible to the public. Most of his works are marketted to popular audiences and his book ''Battle Cry of Freedom'' has long been a popular one-volume general history of the Civil War.
McPherson joined the faculty of Princeton in 1962.<ref name="2000 JEFFERSON LECTURER" /> His works include ''The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction'', awarded the ] in 1965. In 1988, he published his Pulitzer-winning book, ''Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era''. His 1990 book, ''Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution'' argues that the emancipation of slaves amounts to a second American Revolution. McPherson's 1998 book, '']'', received the ].<ref name="Tried by War">{{cite web|title=James McPherson: Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief|url=http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/james-mcpherson-tried-war/|website=pritzkermilitary.org/|publisher=Pritzker Military Museum & Library|access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref> In 2002, he published both a scholarly book, ''Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862'', and a history of the ] for children, ''Fields of Fury''.


In 2007, McPherson published ''This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War'', a series of essays about the American Civil War. One essay describes the huge difficulty of negotiation when regime change is a war aim on either side of a conflict. "For at least the past two centuries, nations have usually found it harder to end a war than to start one. Americans learned that bitter lesson in ], and apparently having forgotten it, we're forced to learn it all over again in Iraq." One of McPherson's examples is the American Civil War, in which both the Union and the Confederacy sought regime change. It took four years to end the war.<ref>Nagy, Kim {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109085444/http://www.wildriverreview.com/spotlight_mcpherson.php |date=November 9, 2007 }} "]"November 2007.</ref>
McPherson was named the "2000 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities" by the ]. In making the announcement NEH Chairman William Ferris said:
:James M. McPherson has helped millions of Americans better understand the meaning and legacy of the American Civil War. By establishing the highest standards for scholarship and public education about the Civil War and by providing leadership in the movement to protect the nation's battlefields, he has made an exceptional contribution to historical awareness in America.


{{quote|There are all kinds of myths that a people has about itself, some positive, some negative, some healthy and some not healthy. I think that one job of the historian is to try to cut through some of those myths and get closer to some kind of reality. So that people can face their current situation realistically, rather than mythically. I guess that's my sense of what a historian ought to do.|James M. McPherson| in an exchange with a Civil War historian<ref>{{cite journal|last=Walsh|first=David|title=An exchange with a Civil War historian|journal=International Workers Bulletin|date=June 19, 1995}}</ref> }}
McPherson is a proponent of ]. "Revisionism," he argues, is "what makes history vital and meaningful"


Among McPherson's other books are ''The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union'' (1965), ''The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP'' (1975), and ''Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War'' (1996).
===Academic criticism===
Some of his Civil War scholarship has come under criticism from ] and ] critic ] for a perceived latent pro-North bias to his work and for exhibiting a ] political bent. In particular he has critiqued McPherson's grasp of economic issues. According to DiLorenzo, McPherson often relies upon his own reputation as a well known Civil War historian rather than any training in economics (he has none) or qualified examination of statistical data to provide economic analysis that is erroneous. Another criticism by DiLorenzo includes the allegation that his work exhibits radical, ] tendencies -- a critique that has also been made against Civil War historian ].


==Honors==
==Politics & advocacy==
McPherson is known for his outspokenness on contemporary issues and his activism, such as his work on behalf of the preservation of Civil War battlefields. As president in 1993-1994 of Protect Historic America, he lobbied against the construction of a commercial theme park at the ] battlefield. He has also served on the boards of the Civil War Trust and the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, and on the Civil War Sites Advisory Committee.


McPherson was elected to the ] in 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=James+M.+McPherson&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-04-14 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> In 1995, he received the Golden Plate Award of the ] presented by Awards Council member ].<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=]|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/}}</ref>
In 1998, McPherson joined a group of scholars, most of them law professors, in supporting President ] against ] charges during the ] ].


McPherson was named the 2000 ]r in the humanities by the ].<ref name="2000 JEFFERSON LECTURER" /><ref>Irving Molotsky, , '']'', September 21, 1999.</ref><ref> '']'', September 22, 1999.</ref> In making the announcement of McPherson's selection, NEH Chairman ] said:
As president of the American Historical Association (AHA), he used his regular "President's Column" in "Perspectives" to address a some of politically and socially-sensitive issues. He criticized the ] administration's doctrine of ] in ], citing the examples the American Civil war and World War II. Responding to comments in 2003 when Bush and ] criticized revisionist historians, McPherson accused the Bush Administration of using deceptive information to "justify an unprovoked invasion" of Iraq. In another column, he detailed the "older forms ]", such as the "old boys network", that helped people like him advance, and acknowledges that contemporary affirmative action, while imperfect, is less unjust than the old system.


<blockquote>James M. McPherson has helped millions of Americans better understand the meaning and legacy of the American Civil War. By establishing the highest standards for scholarship and public education about the Civil War and by providing leadership in the movement to protect the nation's battlefields, he has made an exceptional contribution to historical awareness in America.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/20000111.html |title=NEH News Archive |access-date=February 10, 2005 |archive-date=February 7, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050207200205/http://neh.gov/news/archive/20000111.html |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>
The practice of espousing contemporary political beliefs in his columns drew backlash and criticism from several AHA members who wrote letters to the editor of "Perspectives". David F. Krein, of ] in Iowa, responded that McPherson "seems intent to use his 2003 term as AHA president as his own "bully pulpit" (as president of the AHA) to promote a personal political agenda" and "implore(d) him to stop" the politicization of his column "for the dignity of the profession" of historians. Don McArthur, of Maine South High School in Illinois, responded that McPherson's politics were "furthering a general public mistrust of academic historians" and requested that he "moderate his obviously intense political aversion to the (Bush) administration" when writing in official AHA publications. Martin J. Weiner, of ], described McPherson's columns as "the most unprofessional thing I have seen in 35 years of reading ''Perspectives,''" the AHA's newsletter in which they were published, and suggested the organization's Professional Division should consider McPherson's actions as an "abuse of his office."


In 2002, McPherson received The Lincoln Forum's ] Award of Achievement.<ref></ref>
In response, McPherson claimed that he received generally favorable "personal communications" from other members about his columns, stated that he was only giving his personal views, and argued that contemprorary politics is an appropriate field for the commentary of historians. He concluded by asking readers, "to decide whether my 'conclusions and arguments' are more or less likely 'to flow automatically from ideology rather than from evidence' than those of the Bush administration."
In 2007, he was awarded the $100,000 ] for lifetime achievement in military history and was the first recipient of the prize.<ref>"Civil War Historian Wins $100,000 Prize for Lifetime Achievement" ] </ref> In 2007, he was awarded the ] for lifetime achievement in military history given by the ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.smh-hq.org/awards/morison.html |title=Samuel Eliot Morison Prize previous winners |publisher=] |access-date=December 25, 2017}}</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the ] in 2009.<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter M|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterM.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=April 15, 2011}}</ref>


In 2009, he was the co-winner of the Lincoln Prize for ''Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief''.<ref name="Authors Share">{{cite news|last1=Itzkoff|first1=Dave|title=Authors of 2 Books to Share Lincoln Prize|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/books/12arts-AUTHORSOF2BO_BRF.html?_r=0|newspaper=]|date=February 11, 2009|access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref>
McPherson has criticized those who defend the inclusion of Confederate imagery in state flags, such as Senator ]. He has also favored revisionary presentations at Civil War sites sites in the ]. Actions such as these have led his critics such as DiLorenzo to charge him with politicizing the battlefields.


==Activism==
McPherson has been interviewed in the World Socialist Web Site , a publication of a ] political party. He has also published articles in ] opinion magazine '']''.
{{external media| float = right| video1 = , ]|video2 = , ]}}
McPherson is known for his outspokenness on contemporary issues and for his activism, such as his work on behalf of the preservation of ]. As president in 1993–1994 of ], he lobbied against the construction of a ] near ].<ref></ref> He has also served on the boards of the ] as well as the ], a predecessor to the Civil War Trust. From 1990 to 1993, he sat on the ].<ref></ref>


Along with several other historians, McPherson signed a May <!--18, -->2009 petition asking U.S. President ] not to lay a wreath at the ] at ]. The petition stated:
===Democracy Now interview & UDC boycott===
McPherson's political views have led to charges of ] against him and at least one ] of his books. In ] McPherson drew the ire of Confederate genealogy groups when he and ] had an interview with ] and ] on the ] ] network's ] program. The topic of the interview was then-candidate ]'s support for the Museum of the Confederacy. During the interview McPherson described the ] and ] - two Civil War genealogical groups that are over one hundred years old - as neo-confederate groups. McPherson also stated:


{{quote|The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African Americans by slave owners, Confederates, and ]s, through the monument's denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes. This implies that the humanity of Africans and African Americans is of no significance.
:"I think, I agree a 100% with Ed Sebesta about the motives or the hidden agenda, not too, not too deeply hidden I think of such groups as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. They are dedicated to celebrating the Confederacy and rather thinly veiled support for white supremacy. And I think that also is the again not very deeply hidden agenda of the Confederate flag issue in several southern states."


Today, the monument gives encouragement to the modern neo-Confederate movement and provides a rallying point for them. The modern neo-Confederate movement interprets it as vindicating the Confederacy and the principles and ideas of the Confederacy and their neo-Confederate ideas. The presidential wreath enhances the prestige of these neo-Confederate events.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dear President Obama: Please Don't Honor the Arlington Confederate Monument|url=http://hnn.us/articles/85884.html|work=]|publisher=]|access-date=October 2, 2011|date=May 18, 2009|first1=Edward|last1=Sebesta|first2=James|last2=Loewen}}</ref>}}
McPherson also remarked that board members of the ] in ] were "undoubtedly neo-Confederate." These comments outraged members of the UDC and SCV, bringing condemnation of McPherson and causing boycott calls against his books. A year later McPherson responded to the boycott campaign by elaborating on his comments:


President Obama himself never addressed the issue. Instead, he sent a wreath not only to the Confederate Memorial but also instituted a new tradition of sending a presidential wreath to the ] in Washington, D.C. He also won the praise of the ].<ref>{{cite web|last=Rand |first=Chuck |url=http://sonsofconfederateveterans.blogspot.com/2009/05/scv-pleased-with-obama-sending-wreath.html |title=Sons of Confederate Veterans: SCV Pleased with Obama Sending Wreath to Confederate Monument |publisher=Sonsofconfederateveterans.blogspot.com |date=2009-05-28 |access-date=2014-05-07}}</ref>
:"If I implied that all U.D.C. chapters or S.C.V. chapters or anyone who belongs to those is promoting a white-supremacist agenda, that's not what I meant to say," he said. "What I meant to say is that some of these people have a hidden agenda of white supremacy, (which) they might not even recognize they're involved in"


==Personal life==
Members of the UDC and SCV were similarly offended by these comments. The Virginia UDC responded in their newsletter that "Far from apologizing for his baseless accusations of racism, (McPherson) has now added ignorance to the list of sins that we have committed." The groups continue to oppose McPherson.
McPherson is married and has one child.<ref name="2000 JEFFERSON LECTURER" />


==Bibliography== ==Works==
{{main|James M. McPherson bibliography}}
*''The struggle for equality; abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction'', by James M. McPherson. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1964.

*''The Negro's Civil War; how American Negroes felt and acted during the war for the Union'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.
==Filmography==
*''Marching toward freedom; the Negro in the Civil War, 1861-1865'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Knopf, 1968, c1967.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
*''Blacks in America; bibliographical essays'', by James M. McPherson and others. 1st ed. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1971.
|-
*''The abolitionist legacy: from Reconstruction to the NAACP'', by James M. McPherson. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1975.
! Year
*''Region, race, and Reconstruction: essays in honor of C. Vann Woodward'', edited by J. Morgan Kousser and James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
! Film
*''Ordeal by fire: the Civil War and Reconstruction'', by James M. McPherson.1st ed. New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House, c1982.
! Role
*''Lincoln and the strategy of unconditional surrender'', by James M. McPherson. Gettysburg, Pa: Gettysburg College, 1984.
! class="unsortable" | Notes
*''How Lincoln won the war with metaphors, by James M. McPherson. Fort Wayne, Ind.: Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum, 1985.
|-
*''Battle cry of freedom: the Civil War era'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
|1994
*''Battle chronicles of the Civil War'', by James McPherson, editor; Richard Gottlieb, managing editor. 6 vols. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co.; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, c1989.
| ''Civil War Journal''
*''Abraham Lincoln and the second American Revolution'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
| Himself
*''American political leaders: from colonial times to the present'', by Steven G. O'Brien; editor, Paula McGuire; consulting editors, James M. McPherson, Gary Gerstle. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, c1991.
|
*''Why the Confederacy lost'', edited by Gabor S. Boritt ; essays by James M. McPherson ... . New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
|-
*''What they fought for, 1861-1865'', by James M. McPherson. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c1994.
| 2003
*''The atlas of the Civil War'', edited by James M. McPherson. New York: Macmillan, c1994.
| ''National Geographic: Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King''
*''"We cannot escape history": Lincoln and the last best hope of Earth'', edited by James M. McPherson. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
| Himself
*''The abolitionist legacy: from Reconstruction to the NAACP'', James M. McPherson. 2nd ed. with a new preface by the author. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.
|
*''The American heritage new history of the Civil War'', narrated by Bruce Catton; edited and with a new introduction by James McPherson. New York: Viking, 1996.
|-
*''Drawn with the sword: reflections on the American Civil War'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
| 2011
*''For cause and comrades: why men fought in the Civil War'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
| ''The Conspirator: ] and the Plot to Kill Lincoln''
*''Is blood thicker than water?: crises of nationalism in the modern world'', by James M. McPherson. Toronto: Vintage Canada, c1998.
| Himself
*''Personal memoirs of U.S. Grant'', by Ulysses S. Grant; with an introduction and notes by James M. McPherson. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.
|
*''Encyclopedia of Civil War biographies'', edited by James M. McPherson. 3 vols. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, c2000.
|-
*''Crossroads of freedom: Antietam'', by James M. McPherson. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
|2015
*''The boys in blue and gray'', written by James M. McPherson. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002.
| ''The Gettysburg Address''
*''The illustrated Battle cry of freedom: the Civil War era'', by James M. McPherson. New York: Oxford University Press, c2003.
| Himself
*''Hallowed ground: a walk at Gettysburg'', by James M. McPherson. 1st ed. New York: Crown Journeys, 2003.
|
|}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Further reading'''
*{{Cite web|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/mcp2-m19.shtml |title=An exchange with a Civil War historian |date=June 19, 1995 |first=David |last=Walsh |work=International Workers Bulletin |publisher=World Socialist Web Site |access-date=May 31, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531070454/http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/mcp2-m19.shtml |archive-date=May 31, 2012 }}


==External links== ==External links==
{{Portal|American Civil War|Biography|Books}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*
*
*, '']'' November 3, 1999
* on the Civil War
* at the ] from October 5, 2007
* at the ]
* with '']''
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109085444/http://www.wildriverreview.com/spotlight_mcpherson.php |date=November 9, 2007 }}, '']''
* from '']''
* <small> Retrieved April 18, 2010 </small>
*{{imdb name|2098163}}
*{{C-SPAN|29498}}
**, '']'' March 4, 2001
* "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief" at the ] on March 13, 2008
* "150 Years After the Emancipation Proclamation" at the ] on September 28, 2012
{{Oxford History of the United States}}


{{American Historical Association presidents}}
*
{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1976–2000}}
*
{{Authority control}}
*
*
* in the ''Sierra Times''


] {{DEFAULTSORT:McPherson, James M.}}
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 15:49, 27 November 2024

American historian (born 1936)
James M. McPherson
McPherson in June 2011
BornJames Munro McPherson
(1936-10-11) October 11, 1936 (age 88)
Valley City, North Dakota, U.S.
OccupationHistorian
SpousePatricia McPherson
Children1
Awards
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
InstitutionsPrinceton University
Main interestsAmerican Civil War
Notable works

James Munro McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American historian specializing in the American Civil War. He is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. McPherson was the president of the American Historical Association in 2003.

Early life and education

Born in Valley City, North Dakota, McPherson graduated from St. Peter High School in St. Peter, Minnesota, and received his Bachelor of Arts in 1958 from Gustavus Adolphus College, also in St. Peter, from which he graduated magna cum laude. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1963, where he studied under C. Vann Woodward.

Career

McPherson speaking at the American Historical Association annual meeting in January 2014

McPherson joined the faculty of Princeton in 1962. His works include The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction, awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Award in 1965. In 1988, he published his Pulitzer-winning book, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. His 1990 book, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution argues that the emancipation of slaves amounts to a second American Revolution. McPherson's 1998 book, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, received the Lincoln Prize. In 2002, he published both a scholarly book, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862, and a history of the American Civil War for children, Fields of Fury.

In 2007, McPherson published This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War, a series of essays about the American Civil War. One essay describes the huge difficulty of negotiation when regime change is a war aim on either side of a conflict. "For at least the past two centuries, nations have usually found it harder to end a war than to start one. Americans learned that bitter lesson in Vietnam, and apparently having forgotten it, we're forced to learn it all over again in Iraq." One of McPherson's examples is the American Civil War, in which both the Union and the Confederacy sought regime change. It took four years to end the war.

There are all kinds of myths that a people has about itself, some positive, some negative, some healthy and some not healthy. I think that one job of the historian is to try to cut through some of those myths and get closer to some kind of reality. So that people can face their current situation realistically, rather than mythically. I guess that's my sense of what a historian ought to do.

— James M. McPherson, in an exchange with a Civil War historian

Among McPherson's other books are The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union (1965), The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP (1975), and Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War (1996).

Honors

McPherson was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1991. In 1995, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member David McCullough.

McPherson was named the 2000 Jefferson Lecturer in the humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In making the announcement of McPherson's selection, NEH Chairman William R. Ferris said:

James M. McPherson has helped millions of Americans better understand the meaning and legacy of the American Civil War. By establishing the highest standards for scholarship and public education about the Civil War and by providing leadership in the movement to protect the nation's battlefields, he has made an exceptional contribution to historical awareness in America.

In 2002, McPherson received The Lincoln Forum's Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement. In 2007, he was awarded the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military history and was the first recipient of the prize. In 2007, he was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for lifetime achievement in military history given by the Society for Military History. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.

In 2009, he was the co-winner of the Lincoln Prize for Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.

Activism

External videos
video icon Interview with McPherson in his home library and office about his writing habits, October 8, 2008, C-SPAN
video icon Panel discussion hosted by the American Historical Association on the career of James McPherson, January 8, 2012, C-SPAN

McPherson is known for his outspokenness on contemporary issues and for his activism, such as his work on behalf of the preservation of Civil War battlefields. As president in 1993–1994 of Protect Historic America, he lobbied against the construction of a Disney theme park near Manassas battlefield. He has also served on the boards of the Civil War Trust as well as the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, a predecessor to the Civil War Trust. From 1990 to 1993, he sat on the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission.

Along with several other historians, McPherson signed a May 2009 petition asking U.S. President Barack Obama not to lay a wreath at the Confederate Monument Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The petition stated:

The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African Americans by slave owners, Confederates, and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes. This implies that the humanity of Africans and African Americans is of no significance. Today, the monument gives encouragement to the modern neo-Confederate movement and provides a rallying point for them. The modern neo-Confederate movement interprets it as vindicating the Confederacy and the principles and ideas of the Confederacy and their neo-Confederate ideas. The presidential wreath enhances the prestige of these neo-Confederate events.

President Obama himself never addressed the issue. Instead, he sent a wreath not only to the Confederate Memorial but also instituted a new tradition of sending a presidential wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He also won the praise of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Personal life

McPherson is married and has one child.

Works

Main article: James M. McPherson bibliography

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1994 Civil War Journal Himself
2003 National Geographic: Beyond the Movie - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Himself
2011 The Conspirator: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Lincoln Himself
2015 The Gettysburg Address Himself

References

Notes

  1. ^ "James McPherson Biography". neh.gov/. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  2. "James McPherson: Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief". pritzkermilitary.org/. Pritzker Military Museum & Library. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  3. Nagy, Kim "Keeping Time - An Interview with James McPherson" Archived November 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine "Wild River Review"November 2007.
  4. Walsh, David (June 19, 1995). "An exchange with a Civil War historian". International Workers Bulletin.
  5. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  6. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
  7. Irving Molotsky, "Choice of Clinton to Give Humanities Lecture Meets Resistance", The New York Times, September 21, 1999.
  8. "National News Briefs; Clinton Declines Offer To Give Scholarly Talk," The New York Times, September 22, 1999.
  9. "NEH News Archive". Archived from the original on February 7, 2005. Retrieved February 10, 2005.
  10. The Lincoln Forum
  11. "Civil War Historian Wins $100,000 Prize for Lifetime Achievement" Chronicle of Higher Education July 17, 2007
  12. "Samuel Eliot Morison Prize previous winners". Society for Military History. Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  13. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter M" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 15, 2011.
  14. Itzkoff, Dave (February 11, 2009). "Authors of 2 Books to Share Lincoln Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  15. Historians Go To War Against Disney's Virginia Theme Park
  16. Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report. Forward.
  17. Sebesta, Edward; Loewen, James (May 18, 2009). "Dear President Obama: Please Don't Honor the Arlington Confederate Monument". History News Network. George Mason University. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  18. Rand, Chuck (May 28, 2009). "Sons of Confederate Veterans: SCV Pleased with Obama Sending Wreath to Confederate Monument". Sonsofconfederateveterans.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 7, 2014.

Further reading

External links

Oxford History of the United States
Volumes
Authors
Editors
Oxford University Press
Presidents of the American Historical Association
1884–1900
1901–1925
1926–1950
1951–1975
1976–2000
2001–present
Pulitzer Prize for History (1976–2000)
Categories: