Richard B. Morris
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Richard Brandon Morris (July 24, 1904 – March 3, 1989) was an American
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
best known for his pioneering work in colonial American legal history and the early history of American labor. In later years, he shifted his research interests to the constitutional, diplomatic, and political history of the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
and the making of the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
.


Background

Richard Brandon Morris was born on July 24, 1904, in New York City. He attended high school at Towsend Harris Hall in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. In 1924, he received a BA degree from City College. In 1925, he received an MA from
Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
and in 1930 a PhD in history at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(with
Evarts Boutell Greene Evarts Boutell Greene (1870–1947) was an American historian, born in Kobe, Japan, where his parents were missionaries. He graduated Harvard University (B.A., 1890; Ph.D., 1893), and began teaching American history (1894) at the University of Ill ...
as dissertation advisor). His dissertation, published by Columbia University Press as ''Studies in the History of American Law, with Special Reference to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'' (1930), still defines the research agenda for historians working on early American law, though at the time it attracted the bitter denunciations of such law-school practitioners of legal history as Julius Goebel, Jr., and
Karl Llewellyn Karl Nickerson Llewellyn (May 22, 1893 – February 13, 1962) was a prominent American jurisprudential scholar associated with the school of legal realism. ''The Journal of Legal Studies'' has identified Llewellyn as one of the twenty most cited A ...
, both on the faculty of Columbia Law School.


Career


City College of New York

In 1927, Morris began teaching History at the City College of New York until in 1946 he was named to the faculty of Columbia University, after having published ''Government and Labor in Early America'' (1946).


Columbia University

In 1949, Morris left City College to teach at Columbia University. Eventually, he became
Gouverneur Morris Gouverneur Morris ( ; January 31, 1752 – November 6, 1816) was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to the U ...
Professor of History at Columbia (no relation), Richard B. Morris continued his pioneering research and writing. Morris was opposed to the
Columbia University protests of 1968 In 1968, a series of protests at Columbia University in New York City were one among the various student demonstrations that occurred around the globe in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students disco ...
, and the agenda of the radicals.


Project '87

In 1976, following the general scholarly disappointment with the bicentennial of the American Revolution, Morris, then president of the
American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
, joined with
James MacGregor Burns James MacGregor Burns (August 3, 1918 – July 15, 2014) was an American historian and political scientist, presidential biographer, and authority on leadership studies. He was the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams Col ...
, then president of the
American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...
, to found Project '87—a joint effort to mark the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Project '87 brought together historians, political scientists, and legal scholars and managed to salvage the Constitution's bicentennial as an occasion for the publication of groundbreaking new historical and legal scholarship on the Constitution and its origins. Morris's own contribution to the Bicentennial, and the culmination of his life's work as a historian, was ''The Forging of the Union, 1781–1789,'' his 1987 volume for the ''New American Nation'' series.


Personal life and death

In 1930, ; had two sons, Jeffrey B. Morris, a constitutional and legal historian who teaches at the Touro Law School in New York, and Donald R. Morris, a teacher in Wyoming. Morris died age 84 in New York City of
melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...
cancer.


Works

Columbia University colleague
Henry Steele Commager Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States. In the 19 ...
enlisted Morris as co-editor of the influential ''New American Nation'' series, a collaborative history of the United States published by
Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
. In 1966 he won the
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, ...
in History for his book on the diplomacy of the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, ''The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence'' (1965). This project, and the acquisition by Columbia University of the papers of
John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first ...
, led him into one of his most productive scholarly ventures. Two volumes of an unfinished four-volume edition of the previously unpublished papers of John Jay followed (1976, 1980), taking Jay's life from his birth in 1745 to his return to the United States in 1784 to become the Confederation's Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Morris also quarried from his work on Jay a series of lectures in the Gaspar G. Bacon Lecture Series at
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
, which in 1967 he published as ''John Jay, the Nation, and the Court,'' focusing on Jay as a committed nationalist in his work as a diplomat and as the first Chief Justice of the United States. Morris's Phelps Lectures at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
resulted in his 1966 book ''The American Revolution Reconsidered,'' which he followed in 1970 with his ''The Emerging Nations and the American Revolution.'' In 1973, preparing for the impending bicentennial of the American Revolution, he published ''Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries'', a collection of biographical essays about
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
,
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
,
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
,
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
,
John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first ...
,
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
, and
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
. * Richard B. Morris, ''Studies in the Early History of American Law, With Special Reference to the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'' (1930, 1959) * Richard B. Morris, ''Government and Labor in Early America'' (1946) * Richard B. Morris, ''The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence'' (1965) * Richard B. Morris, ''The American Revolution Reconsidered'' (1966) * Richard B. Morris, ''John Jay, the Nation, and the Court'' (1967) * Richard B. Morris, ''Fair Trial: Fourteen Who Stood Accused, from
Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...
to
Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...
'' (1967) * Richard B. Morris, ''The Emerging Nations and the American Revolution'' (1970) * Richard B. Morris, ''Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries'' (1973) * Richard B. Morris, ed., ''John Jay: Unpublished Papers, 1743–1780'' (1976) * Richard B. Morris, "The American Revolution as an Anti-colonial War" in ''Conspectus of History'' (1976) * Richard B. Morris, ed., ''John Jay: Unpublished Papers, 1780–1784'' (1980) * Richard B. Morris, ''Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay and the Constitution'' (1985) * Richard B. Morris, ''The Forging of the Union, 1781–1789'' (1987)


Awards

* 1966:
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, ...
in History for ''The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence''


References


External links


Bibliography from getcited.org"Richard B. Morris", ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
* Philip Ranlet, ''Richard B. Morris and American History in the Twentieth Century.'' Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004 *Alden T. Vaughan and George Athan Billias, eds., ''Perspectives on Early American History: Essays in Honor of Richard B. Morris.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1973
Finding aid to Richard B. Morris papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Richard B. Legal historians 1904 births Columbia Law School alumni Columbia University faculty Historians of the American Revolution Historians of the Thirteen Colonies Presidents of the American Historical Association 1989 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Bancroft Prize winners American male non-fiction writers