Philip Lloyd "Phil" White (July 31, 1923 – October 15, 2009) was an

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

academic and civil

community organizer Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...

. A tenured professor of early American history at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

(UT Austin) from the 1960s through 2000, White is acknowledged by many citizens of

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, to have been a primary architect of "the Democratic

grass-roots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

political activism that transformed Austin politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s".

Early life

In New York City, White had been a

with the West Side (

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

) branch of

Americans for Democratic Action Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is a liberal American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA views itself as supporting social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research, and supporting prog ...

, while earning a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

colonial American history The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...

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 ...

under the supervision of Allan Nevins. White essentially brought neighborhood

civic group Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Peck Young, a former University of Texas student and White mentee circa 1968-71, Prof. White "made it possible for a lot of people to be elected and to do things to change this city" (

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

), from being "a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

capital into being something more progressive." Between 1968 and 1971, Prof. White founded the Tarrytown Democrats and the West Austin Democrats and served as Faculty Advisor to the UT Young Democrats. During this period, he also served on the Travis County Democratic Executive Committee and chaired the UT Department of History during the summer months. He was thus in a rare position to oversee both the nascent neighborhood groups and the new student movements that were then forming in the wake of widespread Civil Rights and

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

protests. Even before the adoption of the 26th Amendment in 1971, a "first-ever political coalition" in Austin had been formed, joining "white liberals, minorities and students who had not been politically active before" in an amalgamation that opened up the city's formerly elitist politics. Peck Young, who became director of the Center for Public Policy & Political Studies at Austin Community College, stated that White provided vital support within the university for his group's registration of more than 40,000 new student voters in central Austin from 1971 to 1972 (in a city of then only approximately 250,000 people, and less than 100,000 regular voters). From approximately 1970-75, local school board, city council, judicial, and state legislature offices changed, until nearly all elected offices in

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is na ...

were in the hands of the new coalition, and other Texans started to refer to the state capital as "the People's Republic of Austin". In addition to Mr. Young, Prof. White advised a generation of Texas liberals hailing from UT Austin circa 1970, including

Gonzalo Barrientos Gonzalo Barrientos Jr. (born 20 July 1941) is a former Democratic member of the Texas Senate representing the 14th District from 1985 to 2007. He was also a member of the Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is t ...

Sarah Weddington Sarah Catherine Ragle Weddington (February 5, 1945 – December 26, 2021) was an American attorney, law professor, advocate for women's rights and reproductive health, and member of the Texas House of Representatives. She was best known for repre ...

, Ronnie Earle, Bruce Elfant, Larry Bales, and (future US Congressman)

Lloyd Doggett Lloyd Alton Doggett II (born October 6, 1946) is an American attorney and politician who is a U.S. representative from Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, he has represented a district based in Austin since 1995, currently numbered as Texa ...

University pay dispute

Due to family concerns, White had largely faded out of county politics by the mid-1970s, although he continued advising student political groups and organizing the Texas Association of College Teachers (TACT). It was also during the early-to-mid-'70s that the University of Texas Board of Regents shifted from the Chairmanship of Frank Erwin to that of former Texas governor

Allan Shivers Robert Allan Shivers (; October 5, 1907 – January 14, 1985) was an American politician who served as the 37th governor of Texas. Shivers was a leader of the Texas Democratic Party during the turbulent 1940s and 1950s and developed the lieutenan ...

. In 1975 White and a number of other politically active UT Austin professors "sued the university and President Lorene Rogers, alleging they were denied full salary increases for which they had been recommended in 1975 in retaliation for their political activities", according to White's then-attorney, David Richards, husband of future Texas governor Ann Richards. Although a Texas district court initially ruled in favor of the University, White's appeal that he had been discriminated against, in regards to First Amendment faculty rights, was approved by the US 5th Circuit Court in 1981:

Nationality in world history

The common ground between White's scholarship on early America and his civic political activism was more fully elaborated with his founding of an upper-division course at the University of Texas in the early 1970s called "Nationality in World History." The course examined the global history of how different sovereign nations came into being throughout history. White taught this course for nearly thirty years. After withdrawing from Austin politics in the 1970s, and from university politics in the 1980s, White concentrated primarily on this course and its scholarship for the last two decades of his life. In the words of colleague Michael Hall: : "Phil devoted his last years to investigating the roots of nationalism." This research took him back into the evolution of group instincts in ''

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

'' and the burgeoning field of sociobiology. Phil plunged in relentlessly and took no easy escapes from the rigours of exacting scholarship". Unlike most scholars of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

, White chose not to view the topic through ethnic-tinted lenses, but preferred an

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

, long-term view of the subject: the overall history of the phenomenon of group formation (and maintenance) in our species. Upon retiring, White founded and organized the "World 2000: Teaching World History & World Geography" conference, in conjunction with the World History Association. Keynote speakers included personal friend and former colleague William Hardy McNeill, fellow Columbia alumnus

Immanuel Wallerstein Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (; September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his worl ...

, and slave-trade historian

Philip D. Curtin Philip Dearmond Curtin (May 22, 1922 – June 4, 2009) was a Professor Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University and historian on Africa and the Atlantic slave trade. His most famous work, ''The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census'' (1969) was one of the ...

. In his final decade, White often collaborated with the renowned British global historian A.G. Hopkins. White's chapter in Hopkins' edited book 'Global History: Interactions Between the Universal and the Local''pointed out that, in the words of one reviewer from London, "ethnicity has never been foundational for the development of viable states". The chapter generated high marks from others as well. Hopkins recalls when one of his former colleagues at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

told him that White's essay "was read by former British Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

to prepare for a visit to Africa to address the continent's problems". PLW-930am

References

External links

''Austin American-Statesman'' initial death notice, Oct. 17, 2009

West Austin Democrats

University of Texas, History Department

Center for Public Policy & Policy Studies

The Texas Association of College Teachers

World History Association

* ttp://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?is=1403987920 ''Global History''- Reviews
Philip L. White- Memorial site
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Philip L. 1923 births 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 2009 deaths 20th-century American male writers University of Texas at Austin faculty Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Early life

University pay dispute

Nationality in world history

See also

References

External links