Background
Peterson, Merrill Daniel was born on March 31, 1921 in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. Son of William Oscar and Alice Dwinell (Merrill) Peterson.
(The definitive life of Jefferson in one volume, this biog...)
The definitive life of Jefferson in one volume, this biography relates Jefferson's private life and thought to his prominent public position and reveals the rich complexity of his development. As Peterson explores the dominant themes guiding Jefferson's career--democracy, nationality, and enlightenment--and Jefferson's powerful role in shaping America, he simultaneously tells the story of nation coming into being.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195019091/?tag=2022091-20
( As his presidency drew to a close, Woodrow Wilson came ...)
As his presidency drew to a close, Woodrow Wilson came to realize the claim history would soon have on the documentary record of his life and work, of which he had been a rather inattentive keeper. While some of his more important manuscripts had been kept at his home on S Street in Washington, D.C., approximately 200,000 papers were left behind in the basement of the White House. That is, until one of the president’s longtime friends, the journalist and author Ray Stannard Baker, came forward spurred by an interest in Wilson and his involvement in the American Peace Commission in Paris, 1919. In The President and His Biographer: Woodrow Wilson and Ray Stannard Baker, the renowned historian Merrill D. Peterson looks not just at Wilson’s life and career, but also at the way Wilson was represented by Baker and other biographers, as well as in the media. Rather than addressing the voluminous Wilson historiography, Peterson bases his biographical study on primary sources―in particular the sixty-nine volumes of his Papers edited by Arthur Link and those compiled by Baker―providing a vivid and detailed narrative of our nation’s twenty-eighth president. Making the reader constantly aware of the powerful filters through which we perceive historical figures, Peterson’s vivid and detailed narrative of encounters between the idealistic Wilson and his even more idealistic biographer makes for absorbing reading. A sympathetic account of a controversial figure in American history, The President and His Biographer will appeal to anyone interested in Wilson and his time.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813926548/?tag=2022091-20
( Few figures hold as mythic a place in America's histori...)
Few figures hold as mythic a place in America's historical consciousness as John Brown. A fervent abolitionist, his New England reserve tempered by a childhood on the Ohio frontier, Brown advocated arming fugitive slaves to fight for their freedom, an idea that impressed Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. In 1855, answering the call of his five sons to join them in the desperate struggle for freedom in the new territories, John Brown became a hero of "Bleeding Kansas." When he returned east, the fiery leader launched his ambitious campaign to rouse the slaves to freedom with a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Labeled a madman for his failed military adventure, and repudiated even by prominent antislavery leaders, Brown was tried in a Virginia court and sentenced to hang for treason and sundry other crimes. In John Brown: Legend Revisited, the eminent historian Merrill D. Peterson brings the same blend of sharp-eyed analysis and narrative elegance to bear on Brown's legacy that he has used to unravel the images of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Brown's reputation has undergone a series of tectonic shifts since he met his death on the gallows just before the Civil War. Southerners viewed his exploits with apprehension, seeing Harpers Ferry as a harbinger of servile insurrection, while Brown's eloquence before the court won him sympathy in the North and confirmed his place there as a hero and martyr. Thoreau, the author of passive resistance, wrote of Brown as a man of conscience. Perhaps most important historically, Brown's exploits convinced Southerners that Lincoln's election meant secession and a call to arms. Peterson gives us Brown in his own day, but he also shows how the flaming abolitionist warrior's image, celebrated in art, literature, and journalism, has shed some of the infamy conferred by "Bleeding Kansas" to become a symbol of American idealism and fervor to activists along the political spectrum. And so in the civil rights battles of the twentieth century, Brown became a hero to African Americans.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813923085/?tag=2022091-20
( Since its publication in 1960, The Jefferson Image in t...)
Since its publication in 1960, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind has become a classic of historical scholarship. In it Merrill D. Peterson charts Thomas Jefferson's influence upon American thought and imagination since his death in 1826. Peterson's focus is "not primarily with the truth or falsity of the image either as a whole or in its parts, but rather with its illuminations of the evolving culture and its shaping power. It is posterity's configuration of Jefferson. Even more, however, it is a sensitive reflector, through several generations, of America's troubled search of the image of itself." In a new Introduction Peterson discusses the publication of his book and remarks in the directions of new scholarship. He also draws attention to the continuing interest in Jefferson as shown by recent historical fiction, motion pictures and documentaries, by the remaning of the Libarary of Congress main building and the National Gallery of Art's exhibition, The Eye of Thomas Jefferson, by President William Jefferson Clinton's preinagural pilgrimage to Monticello, and by the Sotheby's auction of a Jefferson letter that commanded the highest auction price ever paid for such a manuscript.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813918510/?tag=2022091-20
(Enormously powerful, intensely ambitious, the very person...)
Enormously powerful, intensely ambitious, the very personifications of their respective regions--Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun represented the foremost statemen of their age. In the decades preceding the Civil War, they dominated American congressional politics as no other figures have. Now Merrill D. Peterson, one of our most gifted historians, brilliantly re-creates the lives and times of these great men in this monumental collective biography. Arriving on the national scene at the onset of the War of 1812 and departing political life during the ordeal of the Union in 1850-52, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun opened--and closed--a new era in American politics. In outlook and style, they represented startling contrasts: Webster, the Federalist and staunch New England defender of the Union; Clay, the "war hawk" and National Rebublican leader from the West; Calhoun, the youthful nationalist who became the foremost spokesman of the South and slavery. They came together in the Senate for the first time in 1832, united in their opposition of Andrew Jackson, and thus gave birth to the idea of the "Great Triumvirate." Entering the history books, this idea survived the test of time because these men divided so much of American politics between them for so long. Peterson brings to life the great events in which the Triumvirate figured so prominently, including the debates on Clay's American System, the Missouri Compromise, the Webster-Hayne debate, the Bank War, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, the annexation of Texas, and the Compromise of 1850. At once a sweeping narrative and a penetrating study of non-presidential leadership, this book offers an indelible picture of this conservative era in which statesmen viewed the preservation of the legacy of free government inherited from the Founding Fathers as their principal mission. In fascinating detail, Peterson demonstrates how precisely Webster, Clay, and Calhoun exemplify three facets of this national mind.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195056868/?tag=2022091-20
( In this absorbing memoir, Merrill D. Peterson traces hi...)
In this absorbing memoir, Merrill D. Peterson traces his progress from a young Kansas Republican to a "Left Liberal," Democrat by reconstructing how the New Republic singularly influenced his intellectual development and academic career during some of the most turbulent years in American history—the final years of the Great Depression through World War II and the beginnings of the Cold War. Peterson recalls how, as a young man, he was guided to intellectual maturity by such extraordinary individuals as Max Lerner, Archibald MacLeish, Vincent Sheean, Alfred Kazin, Lewis Mumford, and Malcolm Cowley—all contributors to this important magazine. We look back, with Peterson, and see how their views are inextricably reflected in his own developing worldview. Peterson was introduced to this liberal weekly by one of his teachers during his senior year of high school (1938-1939). For the next ten years, the magazine served as his principal guide to the politics and culture of the times. Now, at seventy-eight years of age, Peterson revisits the magazine that he read so eagerly during those early, impressionable years. With considerable skill and charm, Peterson weaves together the fresh reading, the history of the country during the 1940s, and his own personal history to give us the heart of the book. In addition, he includes brief essays on Vernon L. Parrington, Lewis Mumford, and Max Lerner, the three American writers and intellectuals he believes had the most influence on him. Peterson discusses several turning points in his young life, but he focuses primarily on his education and the role the magazine played in it. The book concludes when Peterson, with a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization, accepts his first academic appointment, at Brandeis University, and approaches the publication of his first book. Thus, a critical chapter in his life comes to a close.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826212573/?tag=2022091-20
( Dominated by the personalities of three towering figure...)
Dominated by the personalities of three towering figures of the nation's middle period -- Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and President Andrew Jackson -- Olive Branch and Sword: The Compromise of 1833 tells of the political and rhetorical dueling that brought about the Compromise of 1833, resolving the crisis of the Union caused by South Carolina's nullification of the protective tariff. In 1832 South Carolina's John C. Calhoun denounced the entire protectionist system as unconstitutional, unequal, and founded on selfish sectional interests. Opposing him was Henry Clay, the Kentucky senator and champion of the protectionists. Both Calhoun and Clay had presidential ambitions, and neither could agree on any issue save their common opposition to President Jackson, who seemed to favor a military solution to the South Carolina problem. It was only when Clay, after the most complicated maneuverings, produced the Compromise of 1833 that he, Calhoun, and Jackson could agree to coexist peaceably within the Union. The compromise consisted of two key parts. The Compromise Tariff, written by Clay and approved by Calhoun, provided for the gradual reduction of duties to the revenue level of 20 percent. The Force Bill, enacted at the request of President Jackson, authorized the use of military force, if necessary, to put down nullification in South Carolina. The two acts became, respectively, the olive branch and the sword of the compromise that preserved the peace, the Union, and the Constitution in 1833. A careful study of what has become a neglected event in American political history, Merrill D. Peterson's work spans a period of over thirty years -- sketching the background of national policy out of which nullification arose, detailing the explosive events of 1832 and 1833, and then tracing the consequences of the compromise through the dozen or so years that it remained in public controversy. Considering as well the larger question of decision making and policy making in the Jacksonian republic, Peterson nonetheless never loses sight of the crucial role played by the ambitions, whims, and passions of such men as Calhoun, Clay, and Jackson in determining the course of history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807108944/?tag=2022091-20
(Lincoln's death, like his life, was an event of epic prop...)
Lincoln's death, like his life, was an event of epic proportions. When the president was struck down at his moment of triumph, writes Merrill Peterson, "sorrow--indescribable sorrow" swept the nation. After lying in state in Washington, Lincoln's body was carried by a special funeral train to Springfield, Illinois, stopping in major cities along the way; perhaps a million people viewed the remains as memorial orations rang out and the world chorused its sincere condolences. It was the apotheosis of the martyred President--the beginning of the transformation of a man into a mythic hero. In Lincoln in American Memory, historian Merrill Peterson provides a fascinating history of Lincoln's place in the American imagination from the hour of his death to the present. In tracing the changing image of Lincoln through time, this wide-ranging account offers insight into the evolution and struggles of American politics and society--and into the character of Lincoln himself. Westerners, Easterners, even Southerners were caught up in the idealization of the late President, reshaping his memory and laying claim to his mantle, as his widow, son, memorial builders, and memorabilia collectors fought over his visible legacy. Peterson also looks at the complex responses of blacks to the memory of Lincoln, as they moved from exultation at the end of slavery to the harsh reality of free life amid deep poverty and segregation; at more than one memorial event for the great emancipator, the author notes, blacks were excluded. He makes an engaging examination of the flood of reminiscences and biographies, from Lincoln's old law partner William H. Herndon to Carl Sandburg and beyond. Serious historians were late in coming to the topic; for decades the myth-makers sought to shape the image of the hero President to suit their own agendas. He was made a voice of prohibition, a saloon-keeper, an infidel, a devout Christian, the first Bull Moose Progressive, a military blunderer and (after the First World War) a military genius, a white supremacist (according to D.W. Griffith and other Southern admirers), and a touchstone for the civil rights movement. Through it all, Peterson traces five principal images of Lincoln: the savior of the Union, the great emancipator, man of the people, first American, and self-made man. In identifying these archetypes, he tells us much not only of Lincoln but of our own identity as a people.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195096452/?tag=2022091-20
Peterson, Merrill Daniel was born on March 31, 1921 in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. Son of William Oscar and Alice Dwinell (Merrill) Peterson.
Student, Kansas State University, 1941. Bachelor of Arts Kansas, 1943. Doctor of Philosophy in History of America Civilization, Harvard University, 1950.
Teaching fellow, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948-1949;
instructor, then assistant professor of history, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1949-1955;
assistant professor, bicentennial preceptor, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1955-1958;
member of faculty, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1958-1962;
dean students, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1960-1962;
Thomas Jefferson Foundation professor, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1962-1987;
Thomas Jefferson Foundation professor emeritus, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, since 1987;
department chairman history, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1966-1972;
dean of faculty Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1981-1985;
Mary Ball Washington professor American History, University College, Dublin, Ireland., 1988-1989;
volunteer, Peace Corps, Armenia, since 1997. Scholar in residence Bellagio Study Center, 1974. Faculty Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1975.
Lamar lecturer Mercer U., 1975. Fleming lecturer Louisiana State University, 1980. Lecturer at 15 European universities, 40 American colleges andunivs.
( As his presidency drew to a close, Woodrow Wilson came ...)
(The definitive life of Jefferson in one volume, this biog...)
(Enormously powerful, intensely ambitious, the very person...)
( Since its publication in 1960, The Jefferson Image in t...)
( Dominated by the personalities of three towering figure...)
( Few figures hold as mythic a place in America's histori...)
(Lincoln's death, like his life, was an event of epic prop...)
( In this absorbing memoir, Merrill D. Peterson traces hi...)
(Book by Merrill D. Peterson)
Board of directors Thomas Memorial Foundation. Chairman Thomas Jefferson Commemoration Commission, 1993-1994. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences.
Member American History Association, Southern History Association, Society American Historians, American Antiquarian Society, Massachusetts History Society, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Jean Hymphrey, May 24, 1944 (deceased November 1995). Children: Jeffrey Ward, Kent Merrill.