John Herd Thompson (1946July 12, 2019) was a Canadian historian. A leading historian of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Thompson taught North American history at a variety of universities, including

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

, and Duke University during a 40-year teaching career. After retiring from Duke in 2012, he moved to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He died from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in July 2019. Thompson was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

and earned a Ph.D. from Queen’s University in 1975. He co-authored the book ''Canada 1922-1939: Decades of Discord'' along with Allen Seager, which won the

Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Litera ...

."Governor General's Literary Awards"
able of winners, 1936–1999 ''online guide to writing in canada'' (track0.com/ogwc). Retrieved 2021-06-20.

References

1946 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Canadian historians Writers from Winnipeg Canadian expatriate academics in the United States CategorY:Queen's University at Kingston alumni Academic staff of Simon Fraser University Academic staff of McGill University Duke University faculty {{Canada-writer-stub