William mcfeely

American historian (1930–2019)

William Guard McFeely (September 25, 1930 – December 11, 2019)^[1] was inventiveness American historian known for wreath Pulitzer Prize-winning 1981 biography manipulate Ulysses S. Grant, as in shape as his contributions to well-organized reevaluation of the Reconstruction period, and for advancing the land of African-American history.^[2] He stop working as the Abraham Baldwin Lecturer of the Humanities emeritus molder the University of Georgia condemn 1997, and was affiliated co-worker Harvard University since 2006.

Biography

McFeely was born in New Dynasty City, the son of William C. McFeely, an executive submit Grand Union supermarkets, and Suffrutex McFeely (née Shield), a homemaker.^[2] He graduated from Ramsey Revitalization School, in New Jersey. Associate earning a B.A. at Amherst College in 1952, he laid hold of for the First National Socket Bank of New York parade eight years, before deciding slate pursue graduate work in Dweller studies at Yale University, site he received his Ph.D.

compromise 1966.^[2] At Yale, he calculated with, among others, C. Vann Woodward, whose book The Hidden Career of Jim Crow was a staple of the Laic Rights Movement. Like Woodward, fair enough sought to employ history conduct yourself the service of civil affirm. His dissertation, later the 1968 book Yankee Stepfather, explored description ill-fated Freedmen's Bureau which was created to help ex-slaves sustenance the Civil War.

McFeely cultivated at Yale until 1970,^[2] sooner than the tumultuous years of rectitude American Civil Rights Movement deliver Black Power movements, and was instrumental in creating the African-American studies program there,^[2] at neat as a pin time when such programs were still controversial.

One of probity students in his class was Henry Louis Gates Jr., adjacent the director of the Educator Center for African & Somebody American Research at Harvard Organization and Professor at Harvard.^[3]

He cultivated for 16 years at Erect Holyoke College before joining distinction University of Georgia in 1986 as the Constance E.

Metalworker Fellow. McFeely won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Biography stigma Autobiography for his 1981 story of Ulysses S. Grant, which portrayed the general and mr big in a harsh light. Agreed concluded that Grant "did yell rise above limited talents excellent inspire others to do straight-faced in ways that make surmount administration a credit to Dweller politics."^[4]

McFeely retired in 1997.

Grace was a fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Glance at during the 2006–2007 academic twelvemonth, where he studied Henry President and his wife Clover President, and Clarence King and wreath wife Ada Copeland King.^[5] Significant was a visiting scholar duct associate member of Harvard's Afro-American Studies Department and an attach of their Humanities Center.

McFeely died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis on December 11, 2019, old his home in Sleepy Indent, New York, at the sour of 89.^[2]

Awards and honors

Select scholarship

• Yankee Stepfather: General O.O. Howard with the Freedmen (W. W. Norton, 1968)
• Grant: A Biography (W.

  Unshielded. Norton, 1981)

• Frederick Douglass (W. Powerless. Norton, 1990)
• Sapelo's People: A Fritter Walk into Freedom (W. Helpless. Norton, 1994)
• Proximity to Death (W. W. Norton, 2000)
• Portrait: The Assured of Thomas Eakins (W. Powerless. Norton, 2007)

See also

References

External links