John Corwin Rule, (2 March 1929

Warren, Indiana Warren is a town in Salamonie Township, Huntington County, Indiana. The population of Warren was 1,182 at the time of the 2020 census. History Warren, originally known as "Jonesboro," was platted in 1833 near the Indianapolis & Ft. Wayne Road. In ...

– 12 January 2013 Columbus, Ohio) was a widely respected historian of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century

French history The first written records for the history of France appeared in the Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul. The first writings on indigenous populations mainly start in the first century BC. Greek ...

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

from 1958 to 1995.

Early life and education

The son of Corwin Rule and Elaine Rule, John Rule attended Broad Ripple High School in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

and went on to graduate from Stanford University with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in history in 1952 with a thesis on " Nicolas de Lamoignon de Basville and the Protestants of the

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

, 1685-1702." He went on to

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 high ...

, where he completed his doctorate in history in 1958 with a thesis on "The preliminary negotiations leading to the

Peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne o ...

, 1709-1712".

Academic career

In his final year of graduate study at Harvard in 1957–58, Rule taught history at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, then joined the faculty at

, where he retired as professor emeritus in 1995. He served as associate editor of the journal ''French Historical Studies'' and was awarded research grants from the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

, the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, the

Folger Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materia ...

, and the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Ma ...

. His last book, ''A World of Paper'' (co-written with Ben S. Trotter) won 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 ...

Leo Gershoy Award The Leo Gershoy Award is a book prize awarded by the American Historical Association for the best publication in English dealing with the history of Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Endowed in 1975 by the Gershoy family and first ...

in 2015. The Ohio State University Foundation established in his memory the Elaine S. and John C. Rule Study Abroad Fund for graduate student travel.

Published works

Books * ''A select bibliography for students of history'', edited by John C. Rule, et al. (1957). * ''Bibliography of works in the philosophy of history, 1945-1957'', edited by John C. Rule, et al. (1961). * ''The character of

Philip II Philip II may refer to: * Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BC) * Philip II (emperor) (238–249), Roman emperor * Philip II, Prince of Taranto (1329–1374) * Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (1342–1404) * Philip II, Duke of Savoy (1438-1497) * Philip ...

: the problem of moral judgments in history'' (1963). * ''Louis XIV and the craft of kingship'' (1969). * ''

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

'' (1973) * ''Observations from the Hague and Utrecht: William Harrison's letters to Henry Watkins, 1711-1712'', edited by Linda Frey, Marsha Frey, and John C. Rule. (1979) * ''A World of Paper:

, Colbert de Torcy, and the Rise of the Information State'', by John C. Rule and Ben S. Trotter (2014) Contributions * "The Old Regime in America: A Review of Recent Interpretations of France in America" in ''The William and Mary Quarterly'', Third Series, Vol. 19, No. 4, (1962). * "Paul Vaucher: Historian" in ''French Historical Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 1, (Spring 1967). * " William F. Church, 1912-1977" by A. Lloyd Moote and John C. Rule in ''French Historical Studies'', Vol. 10, No. 3, (Spring 1978). * "France caught between two balances: the dilemma of 1688" in ''The Revolution of 1688-1689: changing perspectives'', edited by Lois G. Schwoerer (1992). * "A Career in the Making: The Education of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy" in ''French Historical Studies'', Vol. 19, No. 4, (Autumn 1996). * "The king in his council: Louis XIV and the Conseil d'en haut" in ''Royal and republican sovereignty in early modern Europe: essays in memory of Ragnhild Hatton'', edited by Robert Oresko, G.C. Gibbs, and H.M. Scott (1997).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rule, John C. 1929 births 2013 deaths Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Harvard University alumni Historians from Massachusetts Northeastern University faculty Ohio State University faculty People from Huntington County, Indiana Stanford University alumni Writers from Boston Writers from Columbus, Ohio Writers from Indianapolis Historians from Indiana Historians from Ohio