Chester Gibbs Starr (October 5, 1914 in

Centralia, Missouri Centralia is a city in Boone County in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 4,541 at the 2020 census, with an estimated population of 4,244 in 2018. A very small portion of the city lies in Audrain County. The Boone County portion of ...

– 22 September 1999 in

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

. An authority on

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...

, he specialized in the

ancient art Ancient art refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The art of pre-literat ...

and

archeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

of the

Greco-Roman civilization The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...

. According to the University of Michigan, he was "the acknowledged dean of ancient history in America." Starr studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, with Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner. Between 1940 and 1953 he was lecturer in history at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Urbana __NOTOC__ Urbana can refer to: Places Italy *Urbana, Italy United States *Urbana, Illinois **Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois *Urbana, Indiana * Urbana, Iowa *Urbana, Kansas * Urbana, Maryland *Urbana, ...

. He became a professor in the same department, a position he held until 1970, when he moved to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. From 1973 to 1985 he held the Bentley Chair at Michigan. In 1974 he became the first president of the '' American Association of Ancient Historians''. During

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 ...

Starr served in the history section of the U.S. Army, posted to the headquarters of the

United States Fifth Army The United States Army North (ARNORTH) is a formation of the United States Army. An Army Service Component Command (ASCC) subordinate to United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM), ARNORTH is the joint force land component of NORTHCOM.

in Italy from 1942 to 1946. As a result of that commission, he wrote a nine-volume compilation entitled ''Fifth Army History'', and a popular book about it titled ''From Salerno to the Alps'' (1948). Among his historical works are twenty-one books, dozens of articles and over one hundred book reviews. His best-known text, ''A History of the Ancient World'', was reissued with successive enlargements between 1965 and 1991. His historiographical methodology has been described as

Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

, especially in ''Civilization and the Caesars: The Intellectual Revolution in the Roman Empire'' (1954). In what has been called his greatest work: ''The Origins of Greek Civilization'' (1961), he dismantled the

Nordic theory Nordicism is an ideology of racism which views the historical race concept of the "Nordic race" as an endangered and superior racial group. Some notable and seminal Nordicist works include Madison Grant's book '' The Passing of the Great Race'' ...

, which sought to interpret Greek cultural achievements in terms of a

master race The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific concept in Nazism, Nazi ideology in which the putative "Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of Race (classification of human beings), human racial hierarchy. Members wer ...

. His approach focused on individuals as agents of historical change, in contrast to the dominant methodology of the time: the Annales School and the

Braudel Fernand Braudel (; 24 August 1902 – 27 November 1985) was a French historian and leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects: ''The Mediterranean'' (1923–49, then 1949–66), ''Civilization and Capitalism'' ...

ian concept of ''

longue durée The ''longue durée'' (; en, the long term) is the French Annales School approach to the study of history. It gives priority to long-term historical structures over what François Simiand called ''histoire événementielle'' ("evental history", ...

''. Among his other works are ''The Awakening of the Greek Historical Spirit'' (1968), ''Economic Growth of Early Greece'' (1977), ''The Beginnings of Imperial Rome: Rome in the Mid-Republic'' (1980), ''The Flawed Mirror'' (1983) and ''Past and Future in Ancient History'' (1987).Josiah Obe
Article in ''The Independent''
15 October 1999.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starr, Chester Historians of the United States 1914 births 1999 deaths University of Michigan faculty 20th-century American historians People from Centralia, Missouri Cornell University alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty