John Morton Blum
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John Morton Blum (; April 29, 1921 – October 17, 2011) was an American historian, active from 1948 to 1991. He was a specialist in 20th-century American
political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, social ...
, and was a senior advisor to
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
officials.


Life and career

Blum was born in New York City, the son of Edna (LeVino) and Morton Gustave Blum, a businessman and inventor. His family was Jewish. He was raised in a household with limited means, and attended
Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover, Massachusetts, Andover , stat ...
and
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
on scholarships and campus jobs. Upon graduation in 1943, he was commissioned as an ensign in the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, serving in the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
, the
South West Pacific theatre of World War II The South West Pacific theatre, during World War II, was a major theatre of the war between the Allies and the Axis. It included the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (except for Sumatra), Borneo, Australia and its mandate Territory of ...
, and
Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...
. In 1950 he returned to Harvard to write his PhD under the direction of
Frederick Merk Frederick Merk (August 15, 1887 – September 24, 1977) was an American historian. He taught at Harvard University from 1924 to 1956. Biography Frederick Merk was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1887. He graduated from the University of W ...
.David M. Kennedy, "John Morton Blum, 1921–2001: Historian of Modern America," ''Perspectives on History'' (December 2011). Blum married Pamela Zink in 1946 and had three children."Storied professor dies"
. ''The Yale Daily News''. Accessed October 21, 2011.
He taught at
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
from 1948 to 1957 before moving to
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
in 1957. He retired in 1991."Ivy League Insider"
''Harvard Magazine'' (November–December 2004). Accessed October 21, 2011.

. University Press of Kansas.
"Iconic historian passes away"
. ''Yale Daily News''. Accessed October 21, 2011.


Professor at Yale

Blum was on the history faculty at Yale for 34 years, where he taught and influenced thousands of students. One of them in his large lecture class was future U.S. President George W. Bush. Blum later admitted "I haven't the foggiest recollection of him", but Bush remembered and cited Blum's influence in his commencement speech at Yale in May 2001."Commencement Address at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut May 21, 2001"
The American Presidency Project. Accessed October 21, 2011.
Other prominent students of his include Professor
Henry Louis Gates Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Amer ...
, who considered Blum to be his mentor, as well as Professor Laura Kalman (University of California, Santa Barbara),"Department of History"
. University of California, Santa Barbara. Accessed October 21, 2011.
Steve Gillon, resident historian of the
History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
, Massachusetts Senator
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...
, and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman. Blum was one of the "Big Three" in Yale's History Department along with
C. Vann Woodward Comer Vann Woodward (November 13, 1908 – December 17, 1999) was an American historian who focused primarily on the American South and race relations. He was long a supporter of the approach of Charles A. Beard, stressing the influence of unse ...
and Edmund Morgan,"From Here to There: A Review"
PM Press. Accessed October 21, 2011.
and served as chairman of the History Department in the late 1960s. After his death, the John Morton Blum Fellowship in American History and Culture was established at Yale.
. Yale University. Accessed October 21, 2011.


Historian


Author

Blum is the author of several historical works, including ''Joseph Tumulty and the Wilson Era'' (1951) (about President Woodrow Wilson's private secretary
Joseph Patrick Tumulty Joseph Patrick Tumulty (pronounced TUM-ulty; May 5, 1879 – April 9, 1954) was an American attorney and politician from New Jersey. He was a leader of the Irish Catholic political community. He is best known for his service from 1911 until 1921 ...
), ''The Republican Roosevelt'' (1954), ''V Was for Victory'' (1977) (about
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 opposing ...
), and ''Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974'' (1992) (covering U.S. politics from the inauguration of U.S. President
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
to the resignation of U.S. President
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
). He also published a mystery novel based on Yale, ''An Old Blue Corpse'' (2005)."John Morton Blum, 1921–2011"
. ''Yale Alumni Magazine''. Accessed October 21, 2011.
He also wrote a memoir, ''A Life with History'' (2004), detailing his years on the nation's top history faculty, where he witnessed the privileged mostly white
WASP A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...
student body grow in diversity, describing it as "not a refuge from reality but an alternative reality". Perhaps Blum's most widely read work was ''The National Experience: A History of the United States'' (1963), a university history textbook he edited and co-authored with William S. McFeely, Edmund S. Morgan,
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a s ...
and Kenneth M. Stampp."John Morton Blum, Yale presidential historian, dies at 90"
''The Washington Post''. Accessed October 25, 2011.
His 1954 book ''The Republican Roosevelt'' restored the reputation of U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, rescuing it from
Henry F. Pringle Henry Fowles Pringle (1897–1958) was an American historian and writer most famous for his witty but scholarly biography of Theodore Roosevelt which won the Pulitzer prize in 1932, as well as a scholarly biography of William Howard Taft. His w ...
's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1931 biography ''Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography'', which portrayed him as a blustering politician who never grew up that kept him from being taken seriously. However Blum's prose came under attack: "In contrast to many biographers, Blum is not a natural writer; his style is neither elegant nor smooth. Instead, his sentences are often awkward and clunky and force the reader to sip rather than drink freely."Stephen Floyd
"Review of ''The Republican Roosevelt'' by John Blum" (22 March 2015)
/ref> A specialist on the New Deal, Blum wrote ''From the Morgenthau Diaries'' (3 vols., 1959–1967), a biography closely based on the diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1891–1967),
United States Treasury Secretary The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
in 1934–1945. Blum was also prolific as an editor, serving as co-editor of ''The Letters of
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
'' (8 vols., 1951–1954), edited by
Elting E. Morison Elting Elmore Morison (December 14, 1909, Milwaukee, Wisconsin – April 20, 1995, Peterborough, New Hampshire) was an American historian of technology, military biographer, author of nonfiction books, and essayist. He was an MIT professor and th ...
. In 1980 Blum published ''Liberty, Justice, Order: Writings on Past Politics'', 13 essays containing profiles of 10 political leaders representing the first seven decades of the 20th century, including
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
,
Herbert Croly Herbert David Croly (January 23, 1869 – May 17, 1930) was an intellectual leader of the progressive movement as an editor, political philosopher and a co-founder of the magazine ''The New Republic'' in early twentieth-century America. His pol ...
,
Mark Hanna Marcus Alonzo Hanna (September 24, 1837 – February 15, 1904) was an American businessman and Republican politician who served as a United States Senator from Ohio as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee. A friend and p ...
,
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
,
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
,
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
, Henry Wallace, Archibald MacLeish,
Walter Lippman Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 1 ...
, and Earl Warren, bringing out their efforts to foster social justice and economic equality. He also edited the letters of
Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the te ...
and Henry A. Wallace.


Film and television

Blum made a cameo appearance as himself in the 1983
Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
film ''
Zelig ''Zelig'' is a 1983 American mockumentary film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen as Leonard Zelig, a nondescript enigma, who, apparently out of his desire to fit in and be liked, unwittingly takes on the characteristics of strong per ...
'',"John Morton Blum Filmography"
''The New York Times''. Accessed October 21, 2011.
and he has appeared in various documentaries on
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
such as the ''
American Experience ''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
'' series, including ''Theodore Roosevelt'' in 1996 with fellow historian
David McCullough David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States ...
."American Experience"
PBS. Accessed October 21, 2011.
In 1999 he appeared in "The Great War" segment of '' The Century: America's Time''."The Century" full cast and credits
Internet Movie Database. Accessed October 21, 2011.


Honors and awards

*American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1960) *Pitt Professorship at Cambridge (1963–1964) *
Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–194 ...
at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
(1976–1977) *Honorary Degree from Harvard University (1980)


Works

* ''Joseph Tumulty and the Wilson Era'' (1951). * ''The Republican Roosevelt'' (1954
read online
* ''The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt'' (8 vols.) (1954) (ed. with
Elting E. Morison Elting Elmore Morison (December 14, 1909, Milwaukee, Wisconsin – April 20, 1995, Peterborough, New Hampshire) was an American historian of technology, military biographer, author of nonfiction books, and essayist. He was an MIT professor and th ...
). * ''From the Morgenthau Diaries'' (3 vols.) (1959–1967). "Years of Crisis, 1928–1938" (1959), "Years of Urgency, 1938–1941" (1965), "Years of War, 1941–1945" (1967). * ''The National Experience: A History of the United States'' (with William S. McFeely, Edmund S. Morgan,
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a s ...
and Kenneth M. Stampp) (1963) * ''V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II'' (1977
read online
* ''Liberty, Justice, Order: Writings on Past Politics'' (1980, 1993
read online
* ''Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974'' (1992

*''A Life with History'' (autobiography) (Harvard University Press, 2004)


References


External links

*
"Memorial Service for Historian John Morton Blum", November 11, 2011
**John Morton Blum papers (MS 86). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, John Morton 1921 births 2011 deaths United States Navy officers Military personnel from New York City American political writers Historians of the United States Phillips Academy alumni Jewish American historians American male non-fiction writers Writers from New Haven, Connecticut Yale University faculty Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge Writers from New York City Academics of the University of Cambridge Harvard University alumni Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History Historians from New York (state) Historians from Connecticut United States Navy personnel of World War II 21st-century American Jews