Ralph Harlow

May 4, 1884 (age 71)

Claremont, New Hampshire, United States

From 1913 to 1920 Harlow was a member of the faculty at Simmons College in Boston; from 1920 to 1926 he taught at Boston University and lectured at Clark University; and in 1926 he was appointed associate professor at Yale. Three years later Harlow left Yale to join the faculty at Syracuse University as professor and chairman of the department of history. He remained at Syracuse for the rest of his career, retiring in 1948. Harlow's approach to the study and writing of history was a commendable mixture of old and new ideas. His authorship of textbooks for both high school and college use in an era when the textbook carried a quasi-sovereign authority attests to the importance he attached to a systematic development of historical facts. Both The Growth of the United States and The Story of America (1937) went through six editions. His most important text, The United States From Wilderness to World Power (1949), had three editions. These books were conventional efforts by a working historian to offer an overview of American life without special pleading. The work appeared to make Harlow a very conservative student of the past. Harlow was aware of certain provocative dimensions of historical inquiry. In 1923 he wrote a biography of Samuel Adams in which he sought to apply some of the techniques of modern psychology in an effort to understand Adams the revolutionary. Reflecting the influences of Lytton Strachey in England and Gamaliel Bradford in the United States, he became fascinated with the possibility of revealing the inner man. Taking another tack, Harlow argued that history as politics could no longer satisfy as the unique rationale for the American past. More and more, he stated, "History is beginning to turn to business leaders because business and the commercial field are the main interests of the country - and historians deal with main interests. " Emphasis on modern psychology and on the leaders of the business world combined to make Harlow an advocate of the "great man" theory of history. Such an interpretation is consonant with his opinion that history is created by human beings. Appropriately, his reputation as a research historian rests upon two biographies: Samuel Adams, Promoter of the American Revolution (1923) and Gerrit Smith, Philanthropist and Reformer (1939). Harlow also wrote History of Legislative Methods (1917) and a number of articles. Harlow's biography of Adams was a daring enterprise, but not a really successful one. His stated purpose was to show the man at work and to make clear as far as possible why he followed his particular course of action. Using the vocabulary of psychology, Harlow found Adams to be the victim of an inferiority complex. He contended that Adams' revolutionary activity was the product of his emotions and that his behavior in politics was therefore irrational. There is some merit in the criticism that, having postulated the inferiority complex, Harlow distorted Adams' career in order to fit it into the pattern dictated by the supposed neurosis. Reaction to the Adams biography was strong and negative. The Boston Public Library placed the book in its "special collections, " which, the author observed with characteristic good humor, was popularly known as "the Inferno. " In contrast, Harlow's treatment of Gerrit Smith, the nineteenth-century New York State businessman and abolitionist, was widely acclaimed as fine biography. Until Harlow's book, Smith was a forgotten giant among the reformers of his time. Over the years it has proven to be the definitive statement on its subject. While this study exhibited no overt reliance on psychological methodology, it was nevertheless a penetrating character analysis that demonstrated both Harlow's earlier penchant for psychological analysis and his professional maturity. He looked into Smith's family relationships and early training, as well as the man's business and personal behavior. From these solid foundations the multifaceted reform interests of Gerrit Smith were viewed as a natural outgrowth of his heritage. He died at Westbrook, Connecticut.

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Works

book

Story of America

(Instructional history of everything America from Independ...)

Yale Historical Publications Miscellany, V: The History of Legislative Methods in the Period Before 1825

( About the Book History texts study and interpret the pa...)

Samuel Adams, promoter of the American Revolution: A study in psychology and politics

The history of legislative methods in the period before 1825

(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

Yale Historical Publications Miscellany, V: The History of Legislative Methods in the Period Before 1825. 1917

( About the Book History texts study and interpret the pa...)

The history of legislative methods in the period before 1825 (Volume 2)

The United States: From Wildernerss to World Power

The Growth of the United States: Volume II: The Expansion of the Nation 1865 - 1950

(Large textbook type history book details the growth of th...)

Ralph Volney Harlow

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educator historian

Background

Ralph Volney Harlow was born on May 4, 1884 in Claremont, New Hampshire, United States. He was the son of Alvin Braley Harlow and Hattie Grout. His father was in the laundry business in Southbridge, Massachussets, to which the family moved when Harlow was very young.

Education

Harlow attended local schools and prepared for Yale at Mount Hermon. Before entering college he worked briefly in a mill office. Harlow graduated from Yale College in 1909. The next year was spent teaching at a private boys' school in Plainfield, New Jersey, where, as he put it, he was in "nominal charge of a roomful of active little fiends, with somewhat more than their due share of original sin. "

He returned to Yale to take the Master of Arts in 1911 and the Ph. D. in 1913.

Career

From 1913 to 1920 Harlow was a member of the faculty at Simmons College in Boston; from 1920 to 1926 he taught at Boston University and lectured at Clark University; and in 1926 he was appointed associate professor at Yale.

Three years later Harlow left Yale to join the faculty at Syracuse University as professor and chairman of the department of history. He remained at Syracuse for the rest of his career, retiring in 1948.

Harlow's approach to the study and writing of history was a commendable mixture of old and new ideas. His authorship of textbooks for both high school and college use in an era when the textbook carried a quasi-sovereign authority attests to the importance he attached to a systematic development of historical facts. Both The Growth of the United States and The Story of America (1937) went through six editions. His most important text, The United States From Wilderness to World Power (1949), had three editions. These books were conventional efforts by a working historian to offer an overview of American life without special pleading. The work appeared to make Harlow a very conservative student of the past. Harlow was aware of certain provocative dimensions of historical inquiry.

In 1923 he wrote a biography of Samuel Adams in which he sought to apply some of the techniques of modern psychology in an effort to understand Adams the revolutionary. Reflecting the influences of Lytton Strachey in England and Gamaliel Bradford in the United States, he became fascinated with the possibility of revealing the inner man. Taking another tack, Harlow argued that history as politics could no longer satisfy as the unique rationale for the American past. More and more, he stated, "History is beginning to turn to business leaders because business and the commercial field are the main interests of the country - and historians deal with main interests. " Emphasis on modern psychology and on the leaders of the business world combined to make Harlow an advocate of the "great man" theory of history. Such an interpretation is consonant with his opinion that history is created by human beings.

Appropriately, his reputation as a research historian rests upon two biographies: Samuel Adams, Promoter of the American Revolution (1923) and Gerrit Smith, Philanthropist and Reformer (1939). Harlow also wrote History of Legislative Methods (1917) and a number of articles. Harlow's biography of Adams was a daring enterprise, but not a really successful one. His stated purpose was to show the man at work and to make clear as far as possible why he followed his particular course of action. Using the vocabulary of psychology, Harlow found Adams to be the victim of an inferiority complex. He contended that Adams' revolutionary activity was the product of his emotions and that his behavior in politics was therefore irrational.

There is some merit in the criticism that, having postulated the inferiority complex, Harlow distorted Adams' career in order to fit it into the pattern dictated by the supposed neurosis. Reaction to the Adams biography was strong and negative. The Boston Public Library placed the book in its "special collections, " which, the author observed with characteristic good humor, was popularly known as "the Inferno. " In contrast, Harlow's treatment of Gerrit Smith, the nineteenth-century New York State businessman and abolitionist, was widely acclaimed as fine biography. Until Harlow's book, Smith was a forgotten giant among the reformers of his time.

Over the years it has proven to be the definitive statement on its subject. While this study exhibited no overt reliance on psychological methodology, it was nevertheless a penetrating character analysis that demonstrated both Harlow's earlier penchant for psychological analysis and his professional maturity. He looked into Smith's family relationships and early training, as well as the man's business and personal behavior. From these solid foundations the multifaceted reform interests of Gerrit Smith were viewed as a natural outgrowth of his heritage.

He died at Westbrook, Connecticut.

Achievements

Ralph Volney Harlow went down in history as a prominent historian and educator. He exerted considerable influence on a generation of students who used his texts. He also proved himself to be a competent research historian. His writings, along with his work as an educational administrator at Syracuse, formed a well-rounded professional career.