Robert Hamlett Bremner

Background

Robert Hamlett Bremner was born on May 26, 1917, in Brunswick, Ohio, United States. He was a son of George L. Bremner and Sue Hamlett Bremner.

Education

Robert Bremner was a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1938. He went on to complete a Master of Arts (1939) and a Doctor of Philosophy (1943) at Ohio State University.

Career

Following employment with the Department of War in World War II in Europe and the nation's capital, and the Red Cross in Washington as well, in 1946 Robert Breuner was appointed to the faculty of the Department of History at Ohio State in 1946 and rose through the ranks, retiring as Emeritus Professor of History. Bremner formally retired in 1980, but continued to research, write, and always stay connected to his students even through his last days. He directed 40 graduate students toward their doctorate in history. In 1989, as a tribute to his importance in their lives, Bremner's graduate students dedicated a festschrift in his honor, entitled For the General Welfare: Essays in Honor of Robert H. Bremner.

He was the editor or author of several history books, often focusing on philanthropy, poverty, and welfare. Among these works are American Philanthropy (1960), Philanthropy and Social Welfare in the Civil War Era (1981), and The Discovery of Poverty in the United States (1992), as well as edited works that include Essays on History and Literature (1966) and the multi-volume Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History (1970-1974).

He served on the editorial board of the American Historical Review, chairing the Social Welfare History Group, serving as president of the Ohio Academy of History, and was a member of President's Science Advisory Committee, and the Panel on Federal Programs for Youth of the National Academy of Science.

Achievements

• Robert Bremner pioneered the history of social welfare and poverty in the United States. He won awards for teaching, as well as visiting professorships at the Universities of Cincinnati, Wisconsin, and Michigan. He won fellowships from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Works

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• book

  • Giving: Charity and Philanthropy in History

    (Bremner describes the ancient world and classical attitud...)

    1994
  • Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History

    (Public provision for the rights of children has, at last,...)

    1970
  • American Philanthropy 1960
  • From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in the United States 1992
  • The public good: Philanthropy and Welfare in the Civil War Era 1981

Views

In his first book, From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in the United States, Robert Bremner chronicled the history of the idea of poverty from nineteenth-century notions of dependency, meaning that the poor caused social problems, to the early twentieth-century revisionist view that pauperism was the consequence of social problems, notably insufficiency and insecurity, which, having come from late nineteenth century "scientific philanthropy" helped create the social welfare reform movement and the progressive reform movement of the early 20th century.

Among the issues stressed in massive volumes of Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History were health, education, family law, delinquency, dependency, and child labor. Bremner's perspective was to be engaged with the unfortunate youngsters of the past. The work's point of view has been superseded by others more involved in contemporary theoretical issues that historians have borrowed from literary and social science theory - not necessarily an advance in scholarly understanding. His approach was more traditional, seemingly atheoretical, and empirical.

Personality

Robert Bremner was not a narrow specialist and had an amazing catholicity of interests to include literature, art, architecture, towns, and cities and, always, their people.

He was a modest and humble man who was always interested in the welfare of his graduate students. Never an entrepreneurial academic "scrambler" concerned with status, self-promotion, or bathing in the glory of his own ego, Bremner was a superb and profoundly dedicated teacher who would have wanted to be remembered for that more than anything else. He encouraged, inspired, and supported his graduate students' endeavors with energy, wisdom, insight, patience, and deep humanity. His family reported that in his last days in the hospital he asked about his students by name. He and his wife never forgot their students, maintaining an interest in those who had long finished their graduate work, following their careers and their lives with affection, letters, gifts, and cards. They entertained small legions of graduate students at their home, and in numerous restaurant or professional convention outings which became joyous, informal seminars on industrial and public architecture, city planning, the history of Ohio small towns and villages, and on such diversions as neighborhood taverns as social history.

As a teacher he was especially skilled in the explication of text: to listen to him find new insights in William Graham Sumner, analyze the broader significance of Henry George, explicate Thorstein Veblen on work and craftsmanship, or analyze Biblical notions of philanthropy were treats for his students' minds. He loved the term "turning a phrase," he was a master stylist, and his criticism of written drafts gave ample evidence of concision and wit, always leaving room for students to expand, explore, and enhance their research and writing. His classroom demeanor was calm, modest, unassuming, and self-possessed, but beneath that gentle exterior resided a mind of steel and the muted strength of a classroom lion. In presenting ideas to his students he would read a particular passage several times, with different emphases on certain words or phrases, creating italics with his voice to make a point about interpretation. A gifted lecturer and seminar leader, he was strongest in substantive analysis and downplayed flamboyant theatrics, but always saved room for subtle and muted humor and irony which he expressed with a twinkle in his eyes and a calm and at times a mischievous smile on his face.

Connections

Robert Bremner was married to Catherine Marting Bremner, who gave birth to his two daughters, Sue and Ann.

Father:

George L. Bremner

Mother:

Sue Hamlett Bremner

Wife:

Catherine Marting Bremner

Catherine Marting Bremner was born in 1917. She subsequently taught at the University of Wisconsin and The Ohio State University and volunteered as a literacy tutor, Camp Fire group leader, and Sunday School teacher. A longtime member of the Worthington United Methodist Church, she also played in its bell choir.

Daughter:

Sue Bremner

Daughter:

Ann Bremner