Robert G. McCloskey
{{short description|American historian}}{{Infobox historian
| birth_name =
| birth_date = January 8, 1916
| death_date = August 4, 1969 (aged 53)
| children = 3, including Deirdre
| birth_place = Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, U.S.
| spouse = Helen Stueland
| death_place = Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S
| education = University of Wisconsin (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
}}
Robert Green McCloskey (8 January 1916 – 4 August 1969) was an American political historian.
Biography
Robert McCloskey originally studied at the University of Wisconsin, receiving an AB,{{Cite news |date=1969-08-05 |title=Robert McCloskey, 53; Harvard Professor |pages=36 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe/34177873/ |access-date=2024-01-02}} eventually completing his doctorate in political science at Harvard University, whose faculty he joined in 1948.{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Shapiro |first1=Martin |title=Mccloskey, Robert G. (1916–1969) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/politics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mccloskey-robert-g-1916-1969 |accessdate=29 September 2019 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the American Constitution |date=1986}} He was secretary of the Littauer Center of Public Administration until 1954, when Arthur Maass took the position.{{cite news |title=Maass Appointed as Littauer Secretary |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1954/5/18/maass-appointed-as-littauer-secretary-parthur/ |accessdate=29 September 2019 |work=Harvard Crimson |date=18 May 1954}} He became an associate professor at the university in 1953, eventually settling as Professor of Government in 1958.
McCloskey was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1959.{{cite news |title=Robert G. McCloskey |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/robert-g-mccloskey/ |accessdate=29 September 2019 |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}} His book The American Supreme Court was the winner of the 1961 Award of the Contemporary Affairs Society. In 1966, McCloskey was named Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History and Government at Harvard. The position had been vacant since 1963, upon the death of V. O. Key.{{cite news |title=McCloskey Given Trumbull Chair; Math, Biology Professorships Filled |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1966/4/22/mccloskey-given-trumbull-chair-math-biology/ |accessdate=29 September 2019 |work=Harvard Crimson |date=22 April 1966}} McCloskey died on 4 August 1969.{{cite news |title=Robert G. McCloskey 1916-1969 |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/8/8/robert-g-mccloskey-1916-1969-pbhbollywood-itimei/ |accessdate=29 September 2019 |work=Harvard Crimson |date=6 August 1968}}{{cite news |title=Robert G. McCloskey, Professor Of History at Harvard, Is Dead |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1969/08/05/archives/robert-g-mccloskey-professor-of-history-at-harvard-is-dead.html |accessdate=29 September 2019 |work=New York Times |url-access=subscription |date=5 August 1968}}
McCloskey's book American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise was first published in 1951. The book was based on his doctoral dissertation,{{cite journal |last1=Bornet |first1=Vaughn D. |title=Book Reviews : American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise: A Study of William Graham Sumner, Stephen J. Field, and Andrew Carnegie. By ROBERT GREEN MCCLOSKEY. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1951. Pp. xi, 193. $3.25.) |journal=Political Research Quarterly |date=1 March 1952 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=150–151 |doi=10.1177/106591295200500119|s2cid=153727558 }} and explored conservatism in the United States from the Reconstruction era to 1910, by considering the publications of William Graham Sumner, Stephen Johnson Field, and Andrew Carnegie.{{cite journal |last1=Redlich |first1=Fritz |title=American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise: A Study of William Graham Sumner, Stephen J. Field, and Andrew Carnegie. By Robert Green McCloskey. [Harvard Political Studies.] (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1951. Pp. xiii, 193. $3.25.) |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1 April 1952 |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=707–709 |doi=10.1086/ahr/57.3.707}}{{cite journal |last1=Dodge |first1=Guy Howard |title=American Conservatism in the Age of Enterprise; A Study of William Graham Sumner, Stephen J. Field and Andrew Carnegie. By Robert Green McCloskey. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1951. Pp. xi, 193. $3.25.) - Brooks Adams; Constructive Conservative. By Thornton Anderson. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1951. Pp. xiv, 250. $3.75.) |journal=American Political Science Review |date=June 1952 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=561–563 |doi=10.2307/1950853|jstor=1950853 }} The first edition of The American Supreme Court was published in 1961 as part of a series,{{cite journal |last1=Swisher |first1=Carl B. |title=The American Supreme Court. By Robert G. McCloskey. The Chicago History of American Civilization. Edited by Daniel J. Boorstin. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. xii + 260 pp. Bibliographical essay and index. $5.00.) |journal=Journal of American History |date=June 1961 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=151–153 |doi=10.2307/1902449|jstor=1902449 }} and described as "lucidly written, well-reasoned, and concise" by Robert J. Harris,{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Robert J. |title=ROBERT G. McCLOSKEY. The American Supreme Court. (The Chicago History of American Civilization.) Pp. x, 260. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. $5.00 |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |date=1 July 1961 |volume=336 |issue=1 |pages=179–180 |doi=10.1177/000271626133600129|s2cid=143602148 }} and "one of the best of a rare breed" by Paul W. Fox.{{cite journal |last1=Fox |first1=Paul W. |title=The American Supreme Court by Robert G. McCloskey (review) |journal=The Canadian Historical Review |date=December 1961 |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=343–344 |doi=10.3138/chr-042-04-br10 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/568642|url-access=subscription }} In 2011, Keith E. Whittington called it "the classic one-volume history of the Court."{{cite journal |last1=Whittington |first1=Keith E. |title=Review: THE SUPREME COURT IN POLITICS |journal=Reviews in American History |date=December 2011 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=631–636 |jstor=41348916|doi=10.1353/rah.2011.0127 |s2cid=143570668 }}
Robert McCloskey married Helen Stueland, with who he had 3 children (including economist Deirdre McCloskey) before dying at the Peter Bent Bridhamn Hospital (now part of the Brigham and Women's Hospital) in August 1969. Following his death, a student of McCloskey's, Sanford Levinson, continued updating The American Supreme Court.{{cite journal |last1=Magee |first1=James |title=Book Review: Politics, Judicial Review and the Separation of Powers |journal=The Journal of Legislative Studies |date=2007 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=320–325 |doi=10.1080/13572330701335830|s2cid=155031773 }} A third book by McCloskey, titled The Modern Supreme Court, was posthumously published in 1974.{{cite journal |first1=D. Grier |last1=Stephenson, Jr. |title=Book Review |journal=Virginia Law Review |date=April 1974 |volume=60 |issue=4 |jstor=1072419 |pages=728–733|doi=10.2307/1072419 }}
References
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Category:20th-century American historians
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:Harvard University alumni