Henry Steele Commager
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Henry Steele Commager (October 25, 1902 – March 2, 1998) was an American historian who wrote (or edited) over forty books and over 700 journalistic essays and reviews.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Commager was a fellow at Peterhouse in Cambridge, England. He taught at New York University, Columbia, and Amherst College starting in 1956. He was an outspoken defender of civil liberties, fought against McCarthyism, and opposed the Vietnam War. Notable books include A Pocket History of the United States (1942) co-written with Allan Nevins, The American Mind (1951) and The Growth of the American Republic. He retired after 36 years at Amherst.
Commager died at the age of 95 in his Amherst home after a battle with pneumonia.
[edit] Quotes
- Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. — Henry Steele Commager
- The greatest danger we face is not any particular kind of thought. The greatest danger we face is absence of thought. — Henry Steele Commager, in Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954).
- The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted. — Henry Steele Commager, in The New York Times (1971).
[edit] References
- Royles, Elizabeth. obituary Henry Steele Commager obituary. Amherst Student.
