John Arthur Garraty (July 4, 1920 – December 19, 2007) 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 ...

and

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

. He specialized largely in American political and economic history. Garraty earned an undergraduate degree at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

in 1941 and completed his doctorate 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 ...

in 1948. 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 ...

, he served in the

United States Merchant Marine United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...

as a swimming instructor. His 1953 biography, ''Henry Cabot Lodge'' (Knopf, 1953), was the first scholarly and authoritative life of the

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

politician

Henry Cabot Lodge Henry Cabot Lodge (May 12, 1850 November 9, 1924) was an American Republican politician, historian, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served in the United States Senate from 1893 to 1924 and is best known for his positions on foreign policy. ...

(1850-1924); a notable feature of that book was the set of footnotes written at Garraty's invitation by Lodge's grandson, Ambassador

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...

(1902-1985), expressing disagreement with some of Garraty's interpretations and findings. He taught at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

for 12 years before joining the Columbia University History Department in 1959. Garraty also served as the president of the

Society of American Historians The Society of American Historians, founded in 1939, encourages and honors literary distinction in the writing of history and biography about American topics. The approximately 300 members include professional historians, independent scholars, jou ...

. He retired from teaching at Columbia in 1990. An author of many textbooks, Garraty's works include the college and high school history textbook ''The American Nation'', later editions of which were co-written with Mark C. Carnes. Among Garraty's other works were many biographies, and a study of the craft of biography, ''The Art of Biography'' (Knopf, 1960). In the 1970s and 1960 Garraty was a historical consultant on various film and media projects, most prominently the ''

School House Rock ''Schoolhouse Rock!'' is an American interstitial programming series of animated Musical film, musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday-morning cartoon, Saturday morning children's programming block on the ...

'' children's television shorts. Garraty co-edited ''The Columbia History of the World'' (1972) and was one of the general editors of the ''

American National Biography The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...

'', a project which he completed in his retirement.

Bibliography

online editions of 53 books written or edited by Garraty

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garraty, John Arthur 1920 births 2007 deaths American male biographers American male non-fiction writers American textbook writers Brooklyn College alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Historians from New York (state) Michigan State University faculty People from Sag Harbor, New York 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American educators 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers United States Merchant Mariners of World War II