Jackson Turner Main

{{infobox writer

|name=Jackson Turner Main

|birth_date={{birth date|1917|8|6}}

|birth_place=Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

|death_date={{death year and age|2003|1917}}

|occupation={{flatlist|

Professor
historian
author

}}

|education=University of Wisconsin–Madison (BA, MA, PhD)

|spouse=Gloria Jean Lund

|children=3

|parents=John Smith Main
Dorothy Kinsey Turner

|relatives=Frederick Jackson Turner (grandfather)

}}

Jackson Turner Main (1917–2003) was an American professor, historian and author who researched and wrote about the colonial American social order before, during and after the American Revolution. He was the grandson of Frederick Jackson Turner, author of the influential Frontier Thesis. Main worked most of his adult life as a professor and author of American Revolution history where it involved the social order during that period and wrote seven ground-breaking works in this area.

Early life and family

Main was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 6, 1917, although he was raised in Madison, Wisconsin. His parents were John Smith and Dorothy Kinsey (Turner) Main. He married Gloria Jean Lund and they had three children, Jackson Turner Main Jr., Eifiona Llewelyn Main and Judson Kempton Main. Main was the grandson of Frederick Jackson Turner,Burner, American Historical Association; Perspectives on History, 2005 who was widely known for his acclaimed and sometimes controversial work Frontier Thesis.Ridge, 1991, page 3 In 1942, he was a sergeant in the United States Army Signal Corps stationed at Camp Crowder, Missouri.[https://www.newspapers.com/image/405266627/ "Jack Main Home"], The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin, volume 160, number 57, 103rd year, May 27, 1942, page 9. {{subscription required}}

Education

While attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Main earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1939; a Master of Arts in 1940 and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1949. In 1980, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.Main, 1973, page 504

Career

Main began his literary and academic career as an assistant professor at Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania, 1948–1950; professor, San Jose State University, California, 1953–1965; professor, University Maryland, College Park, 1965–1966. Thereafter he was a professor of history at the State University New York at Stony Brook, 1966–1983.Main, 1969. p. 539

class="wikitable"

!Position

!Institution

!Location

!Years

Assistant Professor

|Washington and Jefferson College

|Washington, Pennsylvania

|1948-1950

Professor

|San Jose State University

|California

|1953-1965

Professor

|University of Maryland

|College Park, Maryland

|1965-1966

Professor of History

|State University of New York

|Stony Brook, New York

|1966-1983

Main is considered a "pioneer" in the study of the social structures in colonial America during the American Revolutionary War, and made extensive inquiries into tax lists and probate records providing him with a greater insight into the social order of that period.Burner, 2003, Essay Professor Jacob Price of the University of Michigan maintains that, "Jackson Turner Main has played a distinguished part as pioneer and master of the relatively new field of social structure and social mobility in the thirteen colonies."Price, 1986, p. 553

In his work, Social Structure of Revolutionary America, published in 1965, Main asserts:

:{{blockquote|This book developed out of a conviction that an understanding of political history during the revolutionary era depends upon mastery of the underlying social structure. At the same time acquaintance with recent literature on the class structure of contemporary America suggested that similar techniques might profitably be applied to an earlier period. The present work is therefore preliminary both to a more general history of the revolutionary years and to an account of America’s social development.Main, 1965, p. vii}}

Main was also a member of the Department of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder.Main, 1987, page 591

=Works=

{{cite journal |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=The Distribution of Property in Post-Revolutionary Virginia |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |pages=241-258 |publisher=Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians |volume=41 |issue=2 |date=September 1954 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1895804 |jstor=1895804 |doi=10.2307/1895804 |ref=main1954|url-access=subscription }}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |authorlink=Jackson Turner Main |title=The Antifederalists : critics of the Constitution, 1781-1788 |author-mask=2 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1961 |url=https://archive.org/details/antifederalistsc0000main/page/n5/mode/2up |ref=main1961}}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=Social Structure of Revolutionary America |year=1965 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Princeton University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/socialstructureo0000main/page/n3/mode/2up |ref=main1965b}}

{{cite journal |last=Main |first=Jackson |author-mask=2 |title=Government by the People: The American Revolution and the Democratization of the Legislatures |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |pages= |publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture |volume=23 |issue=3 |date=July 1966 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1919237 |jstor=1919237 |doi=10.2307/1919237 |ref=main1966|url-access=subscription }}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=The upper house in Revolutionary America, 1763-1788 |author-mask=2 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1967 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/upperhouseinrevo0000main/page/n5/mode/2up |ref=main1967}}

{{cite journal |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=Trends in Wealth Concentration Before 1860 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |pages=445–447 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=31 |issue=2 |date=June 1971 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2117054 |jstor=2117054 |doi= |ref=main1971}}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=Political parties before the Constitution |author-mask=2 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1973 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalparties0000main/page/n5/mode/2up |ref=main1973}}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=The Sovereign States, 1775-1783 |author-mask=2 |publisher=New York, New Viewpoints |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-5310-63552 |url=https://archive.org/details/sovereignstates10000main/mode/2up |ref=main1973b}}

{{cite journal |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=Standards of Living and the Life Cycle in Colonial Connecticut |journal=The Journal of Economic History |pages=159–165 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=43 |issue=1 |date=March 1983 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120277 |jstor=2120277 |doi= |ref=main1983}}

{{cite journal |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=An Agenda for Research on the Origins and Nature of the Constitution of 1787-1788 |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |pages=591-596 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture |volume=44 |issue=3 |date=July 1987 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1939777 |jstor=1939777 |doi=10.2307/1939777 |ref=main1987|url-access=subscription }}

Final days

Jackson Turner Main died at the age of 85 in Boulder, Colorado, on October 19, 2003, from a lung illness.

Citations

Sources

{{cite web |title=Jackson Turner Main (1917-2003) |year=2005 |first=David |last=Burner |publisher=American Historical Association |url=https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/january-2005/in-memoriam-jackson-turner-main |website=Perspectives on History |accessdate=April 8, 2023 |ref=burner2003}}

{{cite book |last=Collier |first=Christopher |last2=Collier |first2=James Lincoln |title=Decision in Philadelphia : the Constitutional Convention of 1787 |publisher=New York : Random House : Reader's Digest |year=1986 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/decisioninphilad0000coll/page/n7/mode/2up?q=turner |ref=collier1986}}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=The social structure of revolutionary America |volume= |authorlink=Jackson Turner Main |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1965 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/socialstructureo0000main/page/n3/mode/2up |ref=main1965}}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title='Social Structure of Revolutionary America |year=1965 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Princeton University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/socialstructureo0000main/page/n3/mode/2up |ref=main1965}}

{{cite journal |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=The Results of the American Revolution Reconsidered |journal=The Historian |pages=539-554 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Taylor & Francis, Ltd. |volume=31 |issue=4 |date=August 1969 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24442724 |jstor=24442724 |doi= |ref=main1969}}

{{cite book |last=Main |first=Jackson Turner |title=The Sovereign States, 1775-1783 |author-mask=2 |publisher=New York, New Viewpoints |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-5310-63552 |url=https://archive.org/details/sovereignstates10000main/mode/2up |ref=main1973c}}

{{cite journal |last=Price |first=Jacob |title=Reviewed Work: Society and Economy in Colonial Connecticut, by Jackson Turner Main |journal=The Journal of Economic History |pages=553–555 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=46 |issue=2 |date=June 1986 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2122206 |jstor=2122206 |doi= |ref=price1986}}

{{cite journal |last=Ridge |first=Martin |title=The Life of an Idea: The Significance of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis |journal=Montana The Magazine of Western History |pages=2-13 |publisher=Montana Historical Society |volume=41 |issue=1 |date=Winter 1991 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4519357 |jstor=4519357 |doi= |ref=ridge1991}}

Category:1917 births

Category:2003 deaths

Category:20th-century American historians

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:Historians of the American Revolution

Category:British-American history

Category:Writers from Chicago

Category:Historians from Wisconsin

Category:Historians from Illinois

Category:Writers from Madison, Wisconsin

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni

Category:Washington & Jefferson College faculty