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John Shelton Curtiss | |
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| Born | July 15, 1899 |
| Died | December 27, 1983(1983-12-27) (aged 94) Honolulu, Hawaii, US |
| Education | Princeton University: B.A. & Ph.D. in History,Columbia University |
| Alma mater | Princeton University &Columbia University |
| Occupation | historian &professor |
| Employer | Duke University: 1947 to 1969; |
| Title | James B. Duke Professor at Duke University |
| Spouse | Edna Sutter Curtiss |
| Children | Anne Curtiss Fong and John Sutter Curtiss |
| Parent(s) | Harlow Clarke Curtiss and Ethel (Mann) Curtiss |
| The Protocols |
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| First publication ofThe Protocols |
| Writers, editors, and publishers associated withThe Protocols |
| Debunkers ofThe Protocols |
| Commentaries onThe Protocols |
John Shelton Curtiss (July 15, 1899 – December 27, 1983), was an Americanhistorian ofRussia and historical scholar of oldYankee stock. Curtiss was a longtime professor of history atDuke University.
John Shelton Curtiss was born inBuffalo, New York, the son of prominent attorney, Harlow Clarke Curtiss and his socialite wife, Ethel (Mann) Curtiss. His maternal grandfather was Dr.Matthew D. Mann.
In 1921 Curtiss received his bachelor's degree fromPrinceton University, where he had been anoarsman on its undefeatedcrew team.
In 1925 he decided to do graduate work in history atColumbia University. His first published work appears to have been his 1933 articleSloops of the Hudson, 1800–1850.[1] He taught atBrooklyn College from 1933 to 1936 as well as at Columbia from 1934 to 1936. After teaching himselfRussian as a graduate student, he made his first of many trips to theSoviet Union in 1934. He completed his Ph.D. in Russian history at Columbia in 1939.
After receiving his Ph.D. in 1939, Curtiss was hired by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt to be an archivist at hislibrary atHyde Park. Among Curtiss' responsibilities there was to oversee FDRs ship model collection.
AfterWorld War II began, Curtiss was called toWashington, D.C. along with otherSlavic experts to do classified work in the Research and Analysis Branch of theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS). After finishing his wartime work in 1945, he joined the history department at Duke University where he remained for the rest of his career. From 1946 to 1948, he was also a fellow of the Russian Institute at Columbia. In 1954 he received aGuggenheim Fellowship in Russian history.[2] In 1966 he was designatedJames B. Duke Professor of history.[3][4]
DuringWorld War II, in 1941 and 1942, while Jews were being, or about to be,exterminated by theNazis in Europe, Curtiss published his 118-pagemonograph denying the truth and authenticity of the so-calledProtocols of the Elders of Zion, years beforeNorman Cohn published his work on the subject,Warrant for Genocide (1967). Curtiss's work was endorsed by thirteenAmerican historians, as attested to in the work'sForeword. The book concluded that theProtocols of Zion are, "beyond doubt," a "rank and pernicious forgery."
John Shelton Curtiss married Edna Sutter on September 21, 1925, in Buffalo, New York. She died May 22, 1981, in Durham, North Carolina. They had two children, Anne Curtiss Fong and John Sutter Curtiss (1928–2015).[5] After his wife's death, he moved toHonolulu, Hawaii to live with his daughter and her family. He died December 27, 1983, in Honolulu.
In 1940 Curtiss received theHerbert Baxter Adams Prize from theAmerican Historical Association forChurch and State in Russia, 1900–1917.[6] Curtiss also wroteThe Peasant in nineteenth-century Russia withWayne S. Vucinich.
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