Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.

Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Sr. (February 27, 1888 – October 30, 1965) was an American historian. His son, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. was also a noted historian. Schlesinger's father, Bernhard Schlesinger, was a Prussian Jew, and his mother, Kate (née Feurle), was an Austrian Catholic. The two joined the Protestant church together and emigrated to Xenia, Ohio (where Schlesinger was born) in 1872. Schlesinger pioneered the new social history and women's history. He was a Progressive School intellectual who stressed material causes (like economic profit) and downplayed ideology and values as motivations for historical actors. He was highly influential as a director of PhD dissertations at Harvard for three decades. He was well-known for his...