David Morris Potter (December 6, 1910 – February 18, 1971) was an American historian specializing in the study of the coming of theAmerican Civil War, especially the political factors. His best known book isThe Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, which was completed and edited byDon E. Fehrenbacher and published posthumously in 1976.

Potter was born inAugusta, Georgia. He graduated from theAcademy of Richmond County, and, in 1932, fromEmory University. Potter entered graduate school atYale University the same year, working withUlrich Bonnell Phillips who died in 1934 before he started his dissertation. He taught at theUniversity of Mississippi for 1936–1938, then at theRice Institute, now Rice University, in 1938–1940. He completed his dissertation in 1940 at Yale.^[1]

In 1942 Yale published his revised dissertation asLincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis and hired him as an assistant professor. At Yale from 1942 to 1961 and at Stanford University as Coe Professor of American History, 1961 to 1971, he directed numerous dissertations and served on various editorial and professional boards. He edited theYale Review from 1949 to 1951. As a visitor he held the Walgreen Lectureship at theUniversity of Chicago, and the Commonwealth Fund Lectureship at theUniversity of London. Potter was theHarold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History atOxford University in 1947.^[2]

Potter was an elected member of theAmerican Philosophical Society and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[3][4] He posthumously won the 1977Pulitzer Prize for History forThe Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 (1976), an in-depth narrative and analysis of the causes of theAmerican Civil War. His main achievement was to put the history of the South in a national perspective. He rejected the conflict model ofCharles A. Beard and emphasized the depth of consensus on American values. He considered himself aconservative and was a prominent exponent ofConsensus history.^[5] He held honorary degrees from Oxford and the University of Wyoming.^[6]

Potter died of cancer at age 60.The New York Times obituary quoted anencomium of historianMartin Duberman:

David Potter may be the greatest living historian in the United States. To read him is to become aware of a truth that only the greatest historians have been able to show us: That the chief lesson to be derived from a study of the past is that it holds no simple lesson, and that the historian's main responsibility is to prevent anyone from claiming that it does.

Potter was President of theAmerican Historical Association at the time of his death, as well as President of theOrganization of American Historians.^[6]

• His most important book, completed and edited byDon E. Fehrenbacher, wasThe Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, Harper & Row, 1976.online^[7]
• Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis (1942), with a new preface in 1962. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Published with a new introduction by Daniel W. Crofts. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1995.online
• "American Women and the American Character" inAmerican Character and Culture in a Changing World: Some Twentieth-Century Perspectives (Greenwood Press, 1979): 209–225.
• Freedom and Its Limitations in American Life, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher, compiled by George Harmon Knoles, Stanford University Press, 1976.
• History and American Society: Essays of David M. Potter, ed. by Don E. Fehrenbacher, Oxford University Press, 1973.
• Division and the Stresses of Reunion, 1845-1876, Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1973.
• The South and the Concurrent Majority, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Carl N. Degler, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1972.
• The South and the Sectional Conflict, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Nominated for theNational Book Award .^[6]
• (With Curtis R. Grant)Eight Issues in American History: Views and Counterviews, Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1966.
• "The Historian's Use of Nationalism and Vice Versa,"American Historical Review, Vol. 67, No. 4 (July 1962), pp. 924–950in JSTOR
• The Background of the Civil War, National Council for the Social Studies, 1961.
• (With Manning)Nationalism and Sectionalism in America, 1775-1877, Holt, 1961.
• (Editor, with William Goetzmann)The New Deal and Employment, Holt, 1960.
• (Editor) E. David Cronon and Howard R. Lamar,The Railroads, Holt, 1960.
• (Editor)Party Politics and Public Action, 1877-1917, Holt, 1960.
• The American Round Table Discussions on People's Capitalism, 1957.
• People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character, 1954.
• (With Thomas G. Manning)Select Problems in Historical Interpretation, Holt, Volume I, 1949, Volume II, 1950.
• "An Appraisal of Fifteen Years of the Journal of Southern History, 1935–1949,"Journal of Southern History, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Feb. 1950), pp. 25–32in JSTOR
• "The Historical Development of Eastern-Southern Freight Rate Relationships,"Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Summer, 1947), pp. 416–448in JSTOR
• "Horace Greeley and Peaceable Secession,"Journal of Southern History, Vol. 7, No. 2 (May 1941), pp. 145–159in JSTOR
• "Why the Republicans Rejected Both Compromise and Secession," in George Harmon Knoles, ed.,The Crisis of the Union: 1860-1861, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1965, pp. 90–106, Comment byKenneth M. Stampp, pp. 107–113; reprinted inWilentz, Sean, ed.,The Best American History Essays on Lincoln, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. 175–188, without the comment by Stampp. Potter believed Republicans rejected both compromise and secession because they thought Southern Unionism would prevail. They did not believe that rejecting compromise and secession would lead to war. "Today, our hindsight makes it difficult for us to understand the reliance on Southern Unionism." (Knoles, 101).

• Barney, William L. "Potter'sThe Impending Crisis: A Capstone and a Challenge."Reviews in American History 1976 4(4): 551–557.JSTOR
• Brogan, Denis. “David M. Potter.” InPastmasters: Some Essays on American Historians edited byMarcus Cunliffe andRobin W. Winks, (1969) pp. 316–44
• Collins, Robert M. "David Potter's People of Plenty and the Recycling of Consensus History,"Reviews in American History 16 (June 1988): 321–335.in JSTOR
• Fredrickson, George M. "Two Southern Historians."American Historical Review 1970 75(5): 1387–1392.in JSTOR. The two Southern historians of the title are Potter andFletcher Melvin Green.
• Gallagher, Gary W. "A Master's Lessons"Civil War Times (Feb 2020) 59#1, on Potter as teacher.
• Johannsen, Robert W. "David Potter, Historian and Social Critic: a Review Essay."Civil War History 1974 20(1): 35–44. ISSN 0009-8078
• Temperley, Howard. "David M. Potter", in Robert Allen Rutland, ed.,Clio's Favorites: Leading Historians of the United States, 1945–2000, U of Missouri Press (2000), pp. 138–155.
• Winter, Thomas. "Potter, David Morris";American National Biography Online 2000.

• http://biography.yourdictionary.com/david-m-potter

• 1910 births
• 1971 deaths
• Writers from Augusta, Georgia
• Historians of the American Civil War
• Historians of the United States
• Presidents of the American Historical Association
• Pulitzer Prize for History winners
• Yale University alumni
• Yale University faculty
• Stanford University Department of History faculty
• Academy of Richmond County alumni
• 20th-century American historians
• 20th-century American male writers
• Historians from Georgia (U.S. state)
• American male non-fiction writers
• Members of the American Philosophical Society

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