Henry Steele Commager
Prolific liberal historian who opposed McCarthyism and presidential overreach.
Henry Steele Commager (October 25, 1902 – March 2, 1998) was an American historian and one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time. With 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States. He was noted for his campaigns against McCarthyism and other abuses of government power, and he opposed the Vietnam War while criticizing presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan for what he viewed as abuses of presidential power.
- born
- October 25, 1902, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- died
- March 2, 1998, Amherst, Massachusetts
- field
- American history, intellectual and cultural history
- nationality
- American
- known_for
- Campaigns against McCarthyism; intellectual history The American Mind; editing Documents of American History
Lore & Background
Commager was born Henry Irving Commager in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Chicago after his mother died. He earned degrees in history at the University of Chicago, including a PhD in 1928, and lived in Copenhagen researching his dissertation on Johann Friedrich Struensee. He taught at New York University, Columbia University, and Amherst College, retiring in 1992. He married Evan Alexa Carroll in 1928, and after her death married Mary Powlesland in 1979.
Reader's Guide
Commager's significance lies in his role as a public intellectual who believed historians must write for a wider audience. His principal scholarly works include the biography Theodore Parker (1936), The American Mind (1950), and The Empire of Reason (1977). He co-authored the widely used textbook The Growth of the American Republic and edited Documents of American History, which reached its tenth edition in 1988. He mentored distinguished historians at Columbia and helped organize academic support for Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. His liberal interpretation of the Constitution emphasized individual rights and opposition to government overreach, and his biographer Neil Jumonville argued that Commager's style of influential public history has been lost in the 21st century.
Did You Know?
- Commager wrote his PhD dissertation on the Danish philosopher Johann Friedrich Struensee.
- He co-edited the New American Nation Series with Richard B. Morris.
- He opposed the Vietnam War on constitutional grounds.
- His anthology Documents of American History was first published in 1938 and reached its tenth edition in 1988.
Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)
"Henry Steele Commager (25 October 1902 – 2 March 1998) was an American historian and teacher." — Henry Steele Commager "The greatest danger that threatens us is neither heterodox thought nor orthodox thought, but the absence of thought." — Henry Steele Commager "The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted." — Henry Steele Commager "The American people have a stake in the maintenance of the most thorough-going inquisition into American institutions. They have a stake in nonconformity, for they know that the American genius is nonconformist." — Henry Steele Commager
More in Scientists & Inventors (2)
Elsewhere in the Historical Figures universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record