Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Andrew Dickson White And America’S Unfinished (French) Revolution, Gregory S. Brown

History Faculty Research

Andrew Dickson White is not considered a canonical author in the French Revolution's historiography, but rather is known as the founding president of both Cornell University and the American Historical Association (AHA). His best-known published historical writings, when referenced at all, are often derided. Yet in his intellectually formative years, as an earnest abolitionist and amibtious Republican, eager to enter the arena of American political life and anticipating what he would later call "the great revolution" of the Civil War, White made the topic his central academic pursuit - and effectively invented a distinctly American tradition of historiography.