Henry Cord Meyer
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Henry Cord Meyer (1912 – 2001) was an American historian specializing in modern European and Central European history. He was an expert on the politics and economics of airships in the post-World War I period (1920-1938).


Biography

The only child of German immigrants Henry H. and Sophie (née Abhmann) Meyer, Henry Cord Meyer was born on 12 February 1913 in Chicago, Illinois. After his father died in 1920, Meyer and his mother moved first to Eldora, Colorado; Meyer grew up in Colorado Springs. Meyer earned his B.A. degree at the University of Colorado in 1935; he spent one year as a student at the Konsular Academy in Vienna (1935-1936) before continuing his studies in the United States, receiving his master's degree at the University of Iowa (1937), and his PhD from Yale University in 1941.


Career

Meyer was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy at the start of World War II and was recruited by William Donovan to serve as a commissioned officer in the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
, joining other historians performing intelligence work. As one of the planners for the 1943
Operation Torch Operation Torch (8 November 1942 – Run for Tunis, 16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of secu ...
invasion of Northern Africa, Meyer researched port capacities and possible landing sites. He returned to academia after the war, joining the history faculty of
Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...
as a specialist in Central European history. While at Pomona, he received the 1956
George Louis Beer Prize The George Louis Beer Prize is an award given by the American Historical Association for the best book in European international history from 1895 to the present written by a United States citizen or permanent resident. The prize was created in 1923 ...
(American Historical Association) for his 1955 book, ''Mitteleuropa in German Thought and Action, 1815-1945''. He was a 1960 Guggenheim Fellow, studying German and East European History. Leaving Pomona in 1964, Meyer was a founding member of the History Department at
UC Irvine UC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''University Challenge'', a popular British quiz programme airing on BBC Two ** '' University Challenge (New Zealand)'', the New Zealand version of the British programme * Universal Century, one of the ti ...
(retired, 1981; emeritus to 1999). Late in his career, Meyer became an authority on the political and economic history of dirigibles, studying rigid airship travel from its early development by the Schütte-Lanz and
Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH is a German aircraft manufacturing company. It is perhaps best known for its leading role in the design and manufacture of rigid airships, commonly referred to as ''Zeppelins'' due to the company's prominence. The name ...
companies; he also researched the history of the U.S. Navy's airships, including the USS ''Shenandoah'', the USS ''Akron'' and the USS ''Macon'', and studied the British Air Ministry's dirigible program, including the
R100 His Majesty's Airship R100 was a privately designed and built British rigid airship made as part of a two-ship competition to develop a commercial airship service for use on British Empire routes as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. The ot ...
and
R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was designed and built by an Air Mi ...
airships. He conducted an extensive correspondence with figures involved with airship travel and mail service and interviewed survivors of the ''Hindenburg'' disaster. In 1974 Meyer contacted director
Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of ...
regarding the production plans of the film '' The Hindenburg'' and was granted access to the production during filming. Interviewed in 1976, Meyer said that the film’s dramatic narrative – that anti-Nazi sabotage of the ''Hindenburg'' was the cause of the disaster – was not historically accurate. He argued that in 1937 there was no organized anti-Nazi resistance in Germany. Meyer was a prolific scholar, publishing many articles and book reviews in his career; he was the author of seven books. His research interests included German history since 1815, European history since 1848, 19th and 20th century European diplomatic history, and German-Slav relations in the 19th and 20th centuries. His later research included work on the emotional and psychological aspects of slogans (see
Drang nach Osten (; 'Drive to the East',Ulrich Best''Transgression as a Rule: German–Polish cross-border cooperation, border discourse and EU-enlargement'' 2008, p. 58, , Edmund Jan Osmańczyk, Anthony Mango, ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and Interna ...
) and images as they relate to perceptions about national identities; he also investigated the phenomena of political manipulation of technology. In his last work, ''Airships in International Affairs 1890-1940'', Meyer collaborated with airship expert John Duggan. Considered by many an expert on the propaganda use of the airship, Meyer was not averse to sharing his knowledge and expertise with other airship scholars. At his death, Meyer was planning a book on airship political documents and working on his memoirs. Meyer died on September 30, 2001, in Claremont, California. In 2002, Meyer's extensive airship research papers and photograph collection were donated to the
San Diego Air & Space Museum San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM, formerly the San Diego Aerospace Museum) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, United States. The museum is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, ...
Archives.


References


Selected bibliography

* Duggan, J., & Meyer, H. (2001). ''Airships in International Affairs 1890 - 1940''. Springer. * Meyer, H. C. (1996). ''Drang nach Osten: fortunes of a slogan-concept in German-Slavic relations; 1849-1990''. Lang. * Trimble, W. F., & Meyer, H. C. (1993). ''The Politics of Aircraft: Building an American Military Industry''. JSTOR. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3106564 * Meyer, H. C., & Lighter-Than-Air Institute. (1998). ''Count Zeppelin: a psychological portrait''. Auckland, N.Z.: Lighter-Than-Air Institute. * Meyer, H. C. (1998). Book Review: National Identity and Weimar Germany: Upper Silesia and the Eastern Border, 1918–1922. By Tooley T. Hunt. ''Central European History'', 31(4), 452–453. * Meyer, H. C. (1997). A Postal Historian’s Daydream. ''Zeppelin Study Group Newsletter'', 12(44), 3–5. * Meyer, H. C. (1996). ''Drang nach Osten : fortunes of a slogan-concept in German-Slavic relations, 1849 - 1990''. Bern [u.a.: Lang. * Meyer, H. C. (1991). ''Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, 1890-1940''. * Meyer, H. C. (1986). ''Over the years, Collected Works, 1961-1970 (Vol. II)''. Irvine, Calif.: Schlacks. * Meyer, H. C. (1986). ''Collected Works: Essays and articles, 1937-1960 (Vol. 1)''. C. Schlacks, Jr., Publisher. * Meyer, H. C. (1983). Eckener’s struggle to save the airship for Germany, 1919-1929. ''Buoyant Flight'', 29(2), 2–9. * Meyer, H. C. (1981). Politics, Personality, and Technology: Airships in the Manipulations of Dr. Hugo Eckener and Lord Thomson, 1919-1930. ''Aerospace Historian'', 165–172. * Meyer, H. C. (1981). Arthur J. Marder: 1910-1980. ''The Journal of Military History'', 45(2), 87. * Meyer, H. C. (1980). Book Review: Jan Romein. The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900. Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans. ''The American Historical Review'', 85(1), 114–115. * Meyer, H. C. (1979). How Philatelists kept the Zeppelins Flying. ''American Philatelist'', 796–8. * Meyer, H. C. (1979). French Perceptions of the German Airship Revival, 1924-1937. ''South Atlantic Quarterly'', Winter, 107–121. * Meyer, H. C. (1973). ''The long generation: Germany from empire to ruin, 1913-1945.'' New York: Harper & Row. * Meyer, H. C. (1971). Book Review: Germany and the Ottoman Empire 1914-1918, by Ulrich Trumpener. ''Canadian Journal of History'', 6(2), 222–223. * Meyer, H. C. (1969). Teaching the past in the present. In ''The quest for relevance'' (Vol. III, pp. 31–42). Washington, D.C. * Meyer, H. C. (1967). Naumann and Rathenau : their paths to the Weimar Republic. In L. Krieger & F. Stern (Eds.), ''The responsibility of power: Historical essays in honor of Hajo Holborn'' (pp. 325–339). New York. * Meyer, H. C. (1966). Book Review: The Federation of German Industry in Politics Gerard Braunthal. Retrieved from http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/239945 * Meyer, H. C. (1963). As others see us. ''Pomona Today'', LXI. * Meyer, H. C. (1961). Berlin – No loss but the name? ''Claremont Quarterly'', 5–20. * Meyer, H. C. (1960). Book Review: Lebendige Vergangenheit: Beiträge zur Historisch-Politischen Selbstbesinnung Gerhard Ritter. ''The Journal of Modern History'', 32(1). Retrieved from http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/238376 * Meyer, H. C. (1960). ''Five images of Germany: half a century of American views on German history'' (Vol. 27). Service Center for Teachers of History. * Meyer, H. C. (1960). Das Zeitalter des Imperialismus. ''Propyläen Weltgeschichte'', 10. * Meyer, H. C. (1957). Der „Drang nach Osten “in den Jahren 1860–1914. ''Die Welt Als Geschichte'', 17, 1–8. * Meyer, H. C. (1955). With the Russian historians in Rome. ''Claremont Quarterly'', 37–44. * Meyer, H. C. (1955). ''Mitteleuropa in German Thought and Action, 1815-1945.'' * Meyer, H. C. (1955). Mitteleuropa als symptom der gegenwärtigen europäischen Krise. ''Welt Als Geschichte'', XV, 188–95. * Meyer, H. C. (1955). Friedrich Naumann’s Mitteleuropa. In ''Mitteleuropa'' (pp. 194–217). Springer. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-015-2469-8_9 * Meyer, H. C. (1954). Germany renascent. [Charlottesville, Va.: [''The Virginia Quarterly Review'']. * Meyer, H. C. (1951). German Economic Relations with Southeastern Europe, 1870-1914. ''The American Historical Review'', 57(1), 77–90. * Meyer, H. C. (1950). Germans in the Ukraine, 1918. Excerpts from Unpublished Letters. ''American Slavic and East European Review'', 9(2), 105–115. * Meyer, H. C. (1946). Mitteleuropa in German political geography. ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'', 36(3), 178–194. * Meyer, H. C. (1945). Austria’s Economic Future. ''South Atlantic Quarterly'', XLIV, 362–70. * Meyer, H. C. (1942). Rohrbach and His Osteuropa. ''Russian Review'', 2(1), 60–69.


External links


Henry Cord Meyer Collection at Flickr

Henry Cord Meyer papers, 1915-1963, Hoover Institution

Henry Cord Meyer LTA Collection, San Diego Air & Space Museum

Dirigible Artifact Collection, San Diego Air & Space Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Henry Cord 1912 births 2001 deaths University of California, Irvine faculty 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers University of Colorado alumni Pomona College faculty Historians from California 20th-century American male writers