William Archibald Dunning (12 May 1857 – 25 August 1922) 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 st ...

and

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

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 ...

noted for his work on the

Reconstruction era of the United States The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

. He founded the informal

Dunning School The Dunning School was a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history (1865–1877), supporting conservative elements against the Radical Republicans who introduced civil rights in the South. It was na ...

of interpreting the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

through his own writings and the

Ph.D. dissertation A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

s of his numerous students. Dunning has been criticized for advocating white supremacist interpretations, his "blatant use of the discipline of history for reactionary ends" and for offering "scholarly legitimacy to the

disenfranchisement Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

of southern blacks and to the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sou ...

system."

Early life and education

Born in

Plainfield, New Jersey Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City."

, Dunning was the son of a successful businessman who enjoyed

the classics The Classics were an American vocal group formed in 1958 in Brooklyn. The Classics first sang together in high school; two of them had previously sung in a group called The Del-Rays. In 1959, under the auspices of manager Jim Gribble, they record ...

. Dunning earned degrees at

(B.A. 1881, M.A. 1884, and Ph.D. 1885). He spent a year in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

studying European history under

Heinrich von Treitschke Heinrich Gotthard Freiherr von Treitschke (; 15 September 1834 – 28 April 1896) was a German historian, political writer and National Liberal member of the Reichstag during the time of the German Empire. He was an extreme nationalist, who favo ...

. Soon after his return and beginning his academic career, in 1888 he married Charlotte E. Loomis. They had no children. She died in 1917.

Career

Dunning began teaching at Columbia and was steadily promoted on the academic ladder (fellow, lecturer, instructor, adjunct professor, and full professor); in 1903 he was appointed as the Francis Lieber Professor of History and Political Philosophy. He published his PhD dissertation, ''The Constitution of the United States in Civil War and Reconstruction: 1860–1867'' (1897), at age 40 after he had been teaching for several years. His scholarly essays, collected in ''Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction and Related Topics,'' (1897), included work that explained the legal basis for the destruction of slavery, an institution he opposed. His survey ''Reconstruction, Political and Economic: 1865–1877'' (1907), for the "American Nation" series, set the tone. Dunning believed that his ''Reconstruction'' book was too superficial. He felt that it had distracted him from his major work on the history of political theory. Dunning had a dual role in history and political science. He was a long-time editor of ''Political Science Quarterly''. He was a leading expert in the history of political thought, as expressed in his trilogy: ''A History of Political Theories: Ancient and Medieval'' (1902), ''From Luther to Montesquieu'' (1905), and ''From Rousseau to Spencer'' (1920). Although his health was poor after 1903, Dunning wrote numerous scholarly articles and book reviews for the ''

American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...

'' and the ''

Political Science Quarterly ''Political Science Quarterly'' is an American double blind peer-reviewed academic journal covering government, politics, and policy, published since 1886 by the Academy of Political Science. Its editor-in-chief is Robert Y. Shapiro (Columbia U ...

'', which he edited from 1894 to 1903. Dunning was a founder and long-time activist 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 ...

, becoming AHA president in 1913. He served as the 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 Orle ...

in 1922. Evaluating his contributions in 2000, Smith says Dunning was far more important as a graduate teacher than as a research scholar. Columbia was a leading producer of PhDs, and Dunning directed much graduate work in U.S. history and in European political thought. His students included men who became leading scholars and academic

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, such as

Charles Merriam Charles Edward Merriam Jr. (1874–1953) was an American professor of political science at the University of Chicago, founder of the behavioralism, behavioral approach to political science, a trainer of many graduate students, a prominent intellec ...

Harry Elmer Barnes Harry Elmer Barnes (June 15, 1889 – August 25, 1968) was an American historian who, in his later years, was known for his historical revisionism and Holocaust denial. After receiving a PhD at Columbia University in 1918 Barnes became a prof ...

, James Wilford Garner and Carlton J. H. Hayes. He also mentored

C. Mildred Thompson Clara Mildred Thompson (27 November 1881 – 17 February 1975) was a prominent historian and dean of Vassar College where she also chaired its history department. She is the author of two studies about southern Reconstruction and taught history ...

, the history professor who became dean at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

. Thompson drafted the charter for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

(the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization), and worked for

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

in Atlanta. Dunning gave lifelong support to his students, providing continuous encouragement in their careers. They honored him with a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

in 1914, ''Studies in Southern History and Politics Inscribed to William Archibald Dunning . . . by His Former Pupils the Authors'' (1914).

School of thought

Many Southerners (and some Northerners) took PhDs in History under Dunning and returned to the South for academic careers, where they dominated the major history departments. Those who wrote dissertations on Reconstruction included

James W. Garner James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

Walter Lynwood Fleming Walter Lynwood Fleming (1874–1932) was an American historian of the South and Reconstruction. He was a leader of the Dunning School of scholars in the early 20th century, who addressed Reconstruction era history using historiographical techni ...

, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton,

Charles W. Ramsdell Charles William Ramsdell (April 4, 1877 – July 3, 1942) was an American historian. Early life Charles William Ramsdell was born on April 4, 1877, in Salado, Texas. His father, Charles H. Ramsdell, arrived in Texas from New England just befor ...

William Watson Davis William Watson Davis (February 12, 1884 - April 5, 1960) was a professor and author in the United States. He was part of the white supremacist Dunning School of Confederate sympathizing anti-Reconstruction Southern scholars during the Jim Crow era. ...

, and Thomas S. Staple. They comprised the informal "

". Their interpretation of post-Civil War

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology * Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

was the dominant theory taught in American universities through much of the first half of the 20th century. Bradley says, "The Dunning school condemned Reconstruction as a conspiracy by vindictive

radical Republican The Radical Republicans (later also known as "Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Recon ...

s to subjugate southern whites at bayonet point, using federal troops to prop up corrupt state regimes led by an unholy trinity of

carpetbagger In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical term used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the l ...

scalawag In United States history, the term scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War. As with the term ''carpetb ...

s, and

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom ...

." Bradley notes that the Dunning interpretation in the 1930s and 1940s also "received compelling treatment in such popular works as

Claude Bowers Claude Gernade Bowers (November 20, 1878 – January 21, 1958) was a newspaper columnist and editor, author of best-selling books on American history, Democratic Party politician, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to Spain (1933� ...

’s ''The Tragic Era'' and

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

’s ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...

''—both the best-selling novel and the

blockbuster film A blockbuster is a work of entertainment—typically used to describe a feature film produced by a major film studio, but also other media—that is highly popular and financially successful. The term has also come to refer to any large-budget pr ...

." According to Dunning, Reconstruction's players include the "

carpetbaggers In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical term used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the ...

", particularly new white arrivals from the North, whom the Dunning School portrayed as greedy interlopers exploiting the South and dominating the Republican Party; the "

scalawags In United States history, the term scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War. As with the term ''carpe ...

", native southern whites collaborating with the Republicans; and the

, whom the Dunning School portrayed as tools of the carpetbaggers with little independent voice. He was sympathetic to the white Southerners, whom they saw as being stripped of their rights after 1865 by a vengeful North. They assumed the black vote was controlled by

. Dunning and his followers portrayed former planters, the elite political, social and economic class, as honorable people with the South's best interests in mind. Dunning wrote from the point of view of the northern Democrats and portrayed the

Radical Republicans The Radical Republicans (later also known as "Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Recons ...

as men who violated American traditions and were motivated by vengeance after the

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

Criticism

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...

led the criticism of the Dunning School, taking it to task in the introduction of ''

Black Reconstruction in America ''Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880'' is a history of the Reconstruction era by W. E. B. Du Bois, first published in ...

''. Historian

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstruc ...

wrote that the Dunning School "offered scholarly legitimacy to the disenfranchisement of southern blacks and to the Jim Crow system that was becoming entrenched as they were writing," and that "the alleged horrors of Reconstruction helped freeze the mind of the white South in bitter opposition to any change in the region’s racial system." Foner adds that "the fundamental flaw in the Dunning School was the authors’ deep racism," and that "racism shaped not only their interpretations of history but their research methods and use of historical evidence." Dunning referred to freedmen as "barbarous" and defended the racist

black codes The Black Codes, sometimes called the Black Laws, were laws which governed the conduct of African Americans (free and freed blacks). In 1832, James Kent wrote that "in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political p ...

as "a conscientious and straightforward attempt to bring some sort of order" out of the aftermath of war and emancipation. Dunning wrote that the freedmen were not "on the same social, moral and intellectual plane with the whites" and that "restrictions in respect to bearing arms, testifying in court, and keeping labor contracts were justified by the well-established traits and habits of the negroes In ''Black Reconstruction in America'' (1935), Du Bois characterized Dunning's ''Reconstruction, Political and Economic'' as a "standard, anti-Negro" text. Du Bois noted, "Dunning admits that "The legislation of the reorganized governments, under cover of police regulations and vagrancy laws, had enacted severe discrimination against the freedmen in all the common civil rights." Historian Howard K. Beale was a leader of the " revisionist" school of the 1930s that broke with the Dunning interpretation. Beale says the Dunning School broke new ground by escaping the political polemics of the day and used "meticulous and thorough research ..in an effort to determine the truth rather than prove a thesis."Beale, 1940 Beale states that, "The emphasis of the Dunning school was upon the harm done to the South by Radical Reconstruction and on the sordid political and economic motives behind Radicalism." After 1950, the Dunning School was attacked by a new generation of historians. In keeping with European ideas about history "from the bottom up" and the agency of all classes of people, together with new research, they documented the place of African Americans at the center of Reconstruction. The revisionist view was expanded and revised by

and others. They castigated Dunning for his harsh treatment of Blacks in his ''Reconstruction'' (1907). However, Muller claimed that Dunning was equally harsh on all the major players: "Dunning's antipathy in ''Reconstruction'' is generously heaped on all groups, regardless of race, color, creed, or sectional origins."Muller (1974), p. 335

Works

* ''Irish Land Legislation Since 1845.'' (New York: Ginn, 1892) * ''Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction and Related Topics'' (1897, 2nd ed. 1904
online edition
* ''History of Political Theories, Ancient and Mediœval'' (3 vol., 1902–1920
vol 1 onlinevol 2 onlinevol 3 online
* ''History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu'' (1905) * ''Reconstruction, Political and Economic, 1865–1877'' (1907)
online edition
* ''A Sketch of Carl Schurz's Political Career, 1869–1906'' (with

Frederic Bancroft Frederic Bancroft (October 30, 1860, in Galesburg, Illinois – February 22, 1945) was an American historian, author, and librarian. The Bancroft Prize, one of the most distinguished academic awards in the field of history, was established at C ...

; 1908) * ''Paying for Alaska'' (1912) * ''The British Empire and the United States; a review of their relations during the century of peace following the treaty of Ghent, by William Archibald Dunning with an introduction by the Right Honourable Viscount Bryce, O.M., and a preface by Nicholas Murray Butler (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1914) * ''Studies in Southern History and Politics'' (1914
online editionBooks by William Archibald Dunning at Google Books
* ''A History of Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer'' (New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1972)

Early life and education

Career

School of thought

Criticism

Works

Footnotes

Further reading