Merrill Daniel Peterson (31 March 1921 – 23 September 2009) was a history professor at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
and the editor of the prestigious
Library of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...
edition of the selected writings of
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
. Peterson wrote several books on Jefferson, including ''The Jefferson Image in the American Mind'' (Oxford University Press, 1960; reprinted with new foreword, University Press of Virginia, 1998), and ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation'' (Oxford University Press, 1970). Other works include ''Lincoln in American Memory'' (Oxford University Press, 1994), ''John Brown: The Legend Revisited'' (2002), and most recently ''Starving Armenians: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After'' (Univ. of Virginia Press).
Early life and education
Merrill D. Peterson was born in
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 c ...
, his father a
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
minister. His parents divorced when he was in the third grade and his mother began running a boarding house.
After spending two years at
Kansas State University, Peterson earned his B.A. at the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
and then took his Ph.D. in the history of American civilization at
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 high ...
.
Career
After teaching at
Brandeis Brandeis is a surname. People
*Antonietta Brandeis (1848–1926), Czech-born Italian painter
*Brandeis Marshall, American data scientist
* Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, Austrian artist and Holocaust victim
* Irma Brandeis, American Dante scholar
* Loui ...
and
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
, Peterson was hired to teach at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
, which remained his academic home for the rest of his life. He succeeded the great Jefferson biographer
Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone (January 10, 1892 – December 27, 1986) was an American historian, biographer, and editor noted for his six-volume biography on Thomas Jefferson, '' Jefferson and His Time'', for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for history ...
there and ultimately became Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History.
Works
Peterson adapted his dissertation as his first book, ''The Jefferson Image in the American Mind'' (Oxford University Press, 1960), which won the 1961
Bancroft Prize
The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas.
It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...
for History. It is still hailed as a pioneering exploration of the history of American memory, which has become an increasingly important topic for historians. Peterson undertook the work to assess what history had made of Thomas Jefferson. At the end of a decade, he published a lengthy one-volume biography, ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation'' (Oxford University Press, 1970), which he considered his most important book. His 1994 ''Lincoln in American Memory,'' was written from a similar stance as his first book on Jefferson. It was a finalist for the 1995
Pulitzer Prize for biography.
Peterson's shorter studies include works on
John Brown, President
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 ...
, and Wilson's biographer,
Ray Stannard Baker
Ray Stannard Baker (April 17, 1870 – July 12, 1946) (also known by his pen name David Grayson) was an American journalist, historian, biographer, and author.
Biography
Baker was born in Lansing, Michigan. After graduating from the Michigan ...
. Peterson edited several anthologies of Jefferson's writings.
In 1988, Peterson published another landmark work, ''The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun'' (Oxford University Press), a joint biography of
Henry Clay,
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison ...
, and
John C. Calhoun.
Part of a generation that was admonished in its youth to "remember the starving Armenians," Peterson traveled to Armenia in 1997 as a
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...
volunteer and was moved by the country’s troubled history. After research, he edited a collection of essays published by the University of Virginia Press under the title ''"Starving Armenians": America and the Armenian Genocide 1915-1930 and After'' (2004), which explores the American response to the violence against and dispersion of the
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
n people during and after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, when more than 1.5 million of the country's minority population died. He begins with the initial reports to President
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 ...
from
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Henry Morgenthau (; April 26, 1856 – November 25, 1946) was a German-born American lawyer and businessman, best known for his role as the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Morgenthau was one of the most prominent Americans w ...
, his ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. Peterson also covers the contemporary period and the continuing campaign by ethnic Armenians and others to convince the U.S. government to officially recognize the actions as
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
, which Turkey has denied.
Legacy and honors
*2005, the Library of Virginia gave Peterson its Literary Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ashley Edmonds, "A life of achievements: Merrill Peterson remains an avid writer and reader in retirement"
, University of Virginia
*1997, the First Freedom Council's National First Freedom Award
*1994, the Virginia Foundation for Humanities 20th Anniversary Award
*1994, the University of Virginia Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
Book Award, and
*1960, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Gold Medal.
Peterson died at Charlottesville, Virginia, on September 23, 2009.
References
External links
Brief biography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Merrill D.
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
Writers from Manhattan, Kansas
Writers from Charlottesville, Virginia
Harvard University alumni
1921 births
2009 deaths
Bancroft Prize winners
Historians from Virginia
American male non-fiction writers
Kansas State University alumni
University of Kansas alumni
University of Virginia faculty
Brandeis University alumni
Princeton University alumni