D. M. Schurman

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Donald Mackenzie Schurman (born 2 September 1925 in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) was a professor of history at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and also served at the Royal Military College of Canada. In the Festschrift published in his honour in 1997, the editors hailed D. M. Schurman as the "founder of the serious study of naval history in Canada".

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[edit] Early Life and Education

The son of Bertrand Lloyd Schurman, a civil servant, and his wife, Mabel P. Mackenzie, Donald Schurman joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and became a flying officer in 1945. After demobilisation, he attended Acadia University, where he earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1949. Going on to graduate studies at Sidney Sussex College, he completed his Ph.D. in history in 1955 with a thesis on Imperial defence, 1868-1887.

[edit] Career

Schurman began his work as an historian of the British Empire, but this topic became unpopular as a schoarly subject, Schurman translated his interest imperial history to naval history. His 1965 book The Education of a Navy, focusing on the development of strategic thinking, created a valuable new approach to the subject that linked naval thinkers and their personalities with imperial naval policy and strategy. He followed this with a biography of the most important strategic thinker, Sir Julian Corbett. Schurman's research on this subject had a profound effect on the study of naval history in Canada, and influenced a new generation of naval historians in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Schurman joined with John Matthews, Professor of English at Queens University, to start a search in 1972 for the letters of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield as a sabbatical project. Their success in tracking down many previously undiscovered manuscript letters led to the establishment in 1975 of the | Disraeli Project. They were joined in their effort by Professor J. A. W. Gunn, Professor (and at that time Head) of the Political Science Department at Queen’s. Professor Matthews was appointed Senior Editor, and Schurman joined in editing the first two volumes of the project. When the funded eneded after the first two volumes, the project became dormant, but has since continued on the foundation that Matthews and Schurman initially laid.

[edit] Published Works

  • Catalogue of the Corbett papers, compiled by Brian Tunstall; assisted by Peter M. Stanford and D.M. Schurman. (1958)
  • The education of a navy: the development of British naval strategic thought, 1867-1914. (1965)
  • Julian S. Corbett, 1854-1922 : historian of British maritime policy from Drake to Jellicoe. (1981)
  • Benjamin Disraeli Letters, Volume One: 1815–1834, ed. J. A. W. Gunn, John Matthews, Donald M. Schurman, and M. G. Wiebe (1982).
  • Benjamin Disraeli Letters, Volume Two: 1835–1837, ed. J. A. W. Gunn, John Matthews, Donald M. Schurman, and M. G. Wiebe (1982).
  • A bishop and his people: John Travers Lewis and the Anglican Diocese of Ontario, 1862-1902. (1991)
  • Imperial defence, 1868-1887 ¨by Donald Mackenzie Schurman; edited by John Beeler. (2000)

[edit] Contributions

  • A. M. J. Hyatt, ed., From Dreadnought to Polaris (1973)
  • 'Historians and Britain's Imperial Strategic Stance in 1914', in John E. Flint and Glyndwr Williams, eds. Perspectives of Empire: Essays Presented to Gerald S. Graham, (1973)
  • Gerald Tulchinsky, ed., To Preserve and Defend (1976)
  • Gerald Jordan, ed., Warfare in the Twentieth Century. (1977)
  • 'Imperial Naval Defence: The and Now' in K. Neilson and E.J. Errington, eds., Navies and Global Defence (1995)

[edit] Festschrift

  • Far-flung lines: essays in imperial defence in honour of Donald Mackenzie Schurman, edited by Greg Kennedy and Keith Neilson. (1997)