David Watson Noble (March 17, 1925 – March 11, 2018) was an American historian and historiographer, specializing in American intellectual trends and thought. He was a professor of

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Sch ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. Noble was the youngest of four children. Raised on a dairy farm in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, Noble saw first hand how the depression hurt families. His family farm was foreclosed on during the depression. Noble briefly served in the army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but was honorably discharged because of an injury that he received. Thanks to the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

, he earned his undergraduate degree from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. Noble then went on to complete his doctorate from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. He began his teaching career at the University of Minnesota in 1952. Noble was initially a faculty member of the History Department, but later in his career he transferred over to the American Studies Program. Noble retired in 2009. Noble published over 250 articles and book reviews. The University of Minnesota began annually presenting the David Noble Lecture Series at the Minnesota History Museum in Saint Paul in the spring of 1996. The Lecture continues each April at the University of Minnesota. The octogenarian professor taught until his retirement in the spring of 2009. He often mentioned to his students that one of his claims to fame was that he “delivered milk to

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

’s house when he was a boy.” Another claim to fame is that he had his phone tapped by Army Intelligence and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. Noble lived in an extended family household with his wife, his daughter and her husband, his granddaughter and her husband, and their two children (his great grandchildren). He stated that he enjoyed living in an extended family because, " erejects the culture of modernity and identifies with traditional cultures".

Works

* ''The Paradox of Progressive Thought'', 1958 * ''Historians Against History: The Frontier Thesis and the National Covenant in Historical Writing since 1830'', 1965 * ''The Eternal Adam and the New World Garden'', 1968 * ''The Progressive Mind'', 1981 * ''The Restless Centuries: A History of the American People'', (with Peter Carroll), 1973/1979 * ''The Free and the Unfree: A Progressive History of the American People'', 1992/1997/2001 (with Peter Carroll) *
Twentieth Century Limited: A History of Recent America
', 1980 (with Peter Carroll and David Horowitz) * ''The End of American History: Democracy, Capitalism and the Metaphor of Two Worlds in American Historical Writing, 1880-1980'', 1985 * ''Death of a Nation: American Culture and the End of Exceptionalism'', 2002 * ''Debating the End of History: The Marketplace, Utopia, and the Fragmentation of Intellectual Life'', 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, David W. 1925 births 2018 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Minnesota faculty Historians of the United States Historiographers 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians from Minnesota Historians from New Jersey American male non-fiction writers