William "Bill" R. Taylor (1922 – June 17, 2014) was a historian, professor, and author in the United States. He is known for his interdisciplinary

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

approach and for his book ''Cavalier & Yankee''. He was pivotal in developing

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

's history department in the 1960s after he joined the program from Wisconsin. His 1961 book ''Cavalier & Yankee'' explored the

dialectic Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing ...

between northerners and southerners in the United States during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

era. He also edited ''Inventing Times Square'' (1992).

Early years

Taylor grew up in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, and graduated in 1939 from Shattuck School in

Faribault, Minnesota Faribault ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,352 at the 2010 census. Faribault is approximately south of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Interstate 35 and Minnesota State Highways ...

, before studying at Harvard University. With

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 ...

raging, he graduated early in February 1943 to join the

Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. At war's end he returned to his wife and son in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1946 he accepted a position as teaching assistant at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

where he helped teaching English to core curriculum freshman and sophomores under Professor

Theodore Baird Theodore Baird (February 28, 1901 – December 29, 1996) was an American academic and Samuel Williston Professor of English, ''emeritus'', at Amherst College. From 1927 to 1969 he taught students a wide range of literature, and was the creator o ...

. After leaving in 1949 to complete his master's degree 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 higher le ...

, he returned again to Amherst College before finally returning to Harvard in 1952 to complete his PhD under Reuben A. Brower, Cabot Professor of English, in 1957. His dissertation became the basis and one of the chapters in his first book: ''Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character''.

Bibliography

*''Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character.'' published in 1961 ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, William United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Harvard University alumni Stony Brook University faculty 1922 births 2014 deaths People from Kansas City, Missouri 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers