Alan Heimert

Background

Alan Heimert was born on November 10, 1928, in Oak Park, Illinois, United States.

Education

Alan Heimert attended York Community High School. He studied at Harvard University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 1949. Later he studied at Columbia University and received a Master of Arts degree in history. He received a doctorate in the history of American civilization from Harvard.

Career

Alan Heimert started his career as a teacher at Harvard University in 1959. He served as a Professor of American Literature for 30 years. He also served as chairman of the Department of English and American Literature and Language. He published his first book, Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution, in 1966. He is a co-author of two books - A Nation So Conceived with Reinhold Niebuhr in 1963, and The Puritans in America with Andrew Delbanco in 1985. In addition, he contributed to Encyclopedia Americana and literary reviews.

Achievements

• Alan Heimert was known as an American educator and writer, who was famous for book Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution that has been called the most significant and provocative book on American religious history.
  
  Heimert is the founding director of the Harvard South Africa Fellowship Program. The program has been functioning since 1981 and has brought more than 100 young, nonwhite South African professional people to Harvard for a year's study. In 1977, he received a Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Award, for excellence in undergraduate education.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Nation So Conceived: Reflections on the History of American From Its Early Visions to Its Present Power

    (Reflections on American history and vision from its early...)

    1963
  • The Puritans in America: A Narrative Anthology

    (The whole destiny of America is contained in the first Pu...)

    1985
  • Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution

    (This is not a standard history of any one area of ideas. ...)

    1966

Membership

Alan Heimert was an honorary life member of the South African Institute for Race Relations. He also was a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Connections

Alan Heimert was married to a woman named Arline. The marriage produced a daughter.

Daughter:

Lara Heimert