James M. McPherson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) McPherson in June 2011 | |
| Born | James Munro McPherson (1936-10-11)October 11, 1936 (age 89) |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Spouse | Patricia McPherson |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Princeton University |
| Main interests | American Civil War |
| Notable works | |
James Munro McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American historian specializing in theAmerican Civil War. He is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus ofUnited States History atPrinceton University. He received the 1989Pulitzer Prize forBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. McPherson was the president of theAmerican Historical Association in 2003.
Born inValley City, North Dakota, McPherson graduated from St. Peter High School inSt. Peter, Minnesota, and received hisBachelor of Arts in 1958 fromGustavus Adolphus College, also in St. Peter, from which he graduatedmagna cum laude. He received hisPh.D. fromJohns Hopkins University in 1963, where he studied underC. Vann Woodward.[1]
McPherson joined the faculty of Princeton in 1962.[1] His works includeThe Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction, awarded theAnisfield-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 theLincoln Prize.[2] In 2002, he published both a scholarly book,Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam 1862, and a history of theAmerican Civil War for children,Fields of Fury.
In 2007, McPherson publishedThis 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 inVietnam, 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.[3]
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[4]
Among McPherson's other books areThe 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), andDrawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War (1996).
McPherson was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1991.[5] In 1995, he received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council memberDavid McCullough.[6]
McPherson was named the 2000Jefferson Lecturer in the humanities by theNational Endowment for the Humanities.[1][7][8] In making the announcement of McPherson's selection, NEH ChairmanWilliam 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.[9]
In 2002, McPherson received The Lincoln Forum'sRichard Nelson Current Award of Achievement.[10]In 2007, he was awarded the $100,000Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military history and was the first recipient of the prize.[11] In 2007, he was awarded theSamuel Eliot Morison Prize for lifetime achievement in military history given by theSociety for Military History.[12] He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.[13]
In 2009, he was the co-winner of the Lincoln Prize forTried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.[14]
McPherson is known for his outspokenness on contemporary issues and for his activism, such as his work on behalf of the preservation ofCivil War battlefields. As president in 1993–1994 ofProtect Historic America, he lobbied against the construction of aDisney theme park nearManassas battlefield.[15] He has also served on the boards of theCivil War Trust as well as theAssociation for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, a predecessor to the Civil War Trust. From 1990 to 1993, he sat on theCivil War Sites Advisory Commission.[16]
Along with several other historians, McPherson signed a May 2009 petition asking U.S. PresidentBarack Obama not to lay a wreath at theConfederate Monument Memorial atArlington National Cemetery. The petition stated:
The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African Americans by slave owners, Confederates, andneo-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.[17]
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 theAfrican American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He also won the praise of theSons of Confederate Veterans.[18]
McPherson is married and has one child.[1]
| 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 |
Notes
Further reading
