William Gerald McLoughlin (June 11, 1922 – December 28, 1992) was an

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 st ...

and prominent member of the history department at Brown University from 1954 to 1992. His subject areas were the history of religion in the United States, revivalism, the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

, missionaries to Native Americans, abolitionism, and

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

Early life and education

William G. McLoughlin was born in Maplewood, New Jersey. He earned his B.A. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1947, graduating

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

after having taken a three-year hiatus from his studies to serve as a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

in the field artillery in

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 opposing ...

. He did graduate work in history, receiving his M.A. from Harvard in 1948 and his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard in 1953.

Academic career

McLoughlin started as an assistant professor at Brown. In 1963, he was promoted to a full

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

ship. In 1981, he was appointed the Annie McClelland and Willard Prescott Smith Professor of History and Religion. In 1992, McLoughlin was named the first Chancellor's Fellow at Brown, allowing him to continue teaching although he had earned emeritus status. His many publications won him wide recognition, including the 1972 Frederic C. Melcher Prize for the best book on religion in America, for his ''New England Dissent'' (1971). McLoughlin was regarded as “one of the country’s most distinguished historians of American religion.”.

Other civic activities

McLoughlin opposed American involvement in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by 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 Vietnam a ...

and was active in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. He was a former chair of the Rhode Island

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

. A major religion case that McLoughlin and the Rhode Island ACLU took on in 1984 was ultimately heard by the U.S. Supreme Court (

Lynch v. Donnelly ''Lynch v. Donnelly'', 465 U.S. 668 (1984), was a United States Supreme Court case challenging the legality of Christmas decorations on town property. Background Pawtucket, Rhode Island's annual Christmas display in the city's shopping district, c ...

). For his work to advance civil rights, in 2004 McLoughlin was posthumously inducted into the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Hall of Fame in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, along with Robert Bailey IV.
Correction
July 25, 2005.

Books

(listed in chronological order) *''

Billy Sunday William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. Bo ...

Was His Real Name''. (University of Chicago Press, 1955) *''Modern Revivalism:

Charles Grandison Finney Charles Grandison Finney (August 29, 1792 – August 16, 1875) was an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He has been called the "Father of Old Revivalism." Finney rejected much of trad ...

Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...

''. (Ronald Press, 1959) *''

, Revivalist in a

Secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

Age''. (Ronald Press, 1960) *''

Isaac Backus Isaac Backus (January 9, 1724November 20, 1806) was a leading Baptist minister during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England. Little is known of his childhood. In "An account of the lif ...

and the American Pietistic Tradition''. (Little, Brown, 1967) *''Meaning of

Henry Ward Beecher Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery trial. His r ...

: An Essay on the Shifting Values of Mid- Victorian America, 1840-1870''. (Knopf, 1970) *''

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

Dissent, 1630-1833: The Baptists and the

Separation of Church and State The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

''. (Harvard University Press, 1971) *'' Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and

Social Change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or socio ...

in America, 1607-1977''. (University of Chicago Press, 1978) *''

: A Bicentennial History''. (W.W. Norton, 1978) *''

s and Missionaries, 1789-1839''. (Yale University Press, 1984) *''

Renascence in the New Republic''. (Princeton University Press, 1986) *''

, a History''. (W.W. Norton and the American Association for State and Local History, 1986) *''Champions of the

s: Evan and John B. Jones''. (Princeton University Press, 1990) *''Soul Liberty: The Baptists' Struggle in

, 1630-1833''. (University Press of New England, 1991) *''After the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880''. (University of North Carolina Press, 1993) *''

s and

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, 1794-1870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural Persistence''. (University of Georgia Press, 1994)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLoughlin, William G. 1922 births 1992 deaths Princeton University alumni Harvard University alumni Brown University faculty People from Maplewood, New Jersey Writers from Rhode Island 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians from New Jersey 20th-century American male writers