Robert Hugh Ferrell

Ferrell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921 to Ernest and Edna Ferrell. His mother was a schoolteacher; his father was a World War I veteran whose career as a banker kept the family moving throughout Ohio during the Great Depression. The family settled in Waterville, Ohio, where Ferrell's father managed the First National Bank and Ferrell and his brother Ernest Jr. went to high school. The Ferrell home was located at 29 N. 4th Street.{{cite book|author1=Phyllis Witzler|author2=John Rose|author3=Verna Rose|title=Waterville|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zC4vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|date=28 August 2017|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated|isbn=978-1-4396-6204-5|pages=92–}}{{cite book|author1=Lawrence S. Kaplan|author2=Scott L. Bills|author3=E. Timothy Smith|title=The Romance of History: Essays in Honor of Lawrence S. Kaplan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtgaXGOZ1zwC&pg=PR13|year=1997|publisher=Kent State University Press|isbn=978-0-87338-563-3|pages=13–}}

Image:Prof Bemis reading list History 32a Fall 1949.jpg

A pianist, Ferrell studied music and education at Bowling Green State University in Ohio before serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during the Second World War as a chaplain's assistant and staff sergeant. His wartime experience in Europe compelled him to change his vocation to the study of history, inspired also by reading the works of historian and fellow Ohioan Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr., Ida Tarbell, and Allan Nevins. After the war, he received a B.S. in education from Bowling Green in 1946 and a second bachelor's degree in history in 1947.{{cite archive |first=Robert H. |last=Ferrell |item = Robert H. Ferrell oral history | author-link = Robert Hugh Ferrell|item-url = |type =oral history |item-id = |date = November 3, 1994|page= |pages= |fonds = |series = |file = |box= |collection = Robert H. Ferrell mss. |collection-url = http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/index.php?p=ferrell |repository = |institution =Lilly Library Manuscript Collections |location = Indiana University|oclc= |accession= }}

At Yale University, Ferrell earned a master's degree in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1951, working under the direction of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Samuel Flagg Bemis. A student of the Kellogg–Briand Pact, a 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve their disputes, his dissertation The United States and the Origins of the Kellogg–Briand Pact,{{cite web |title=Dissertations by year, 1950–1959 |url=https://history.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/dissertations-year/dissertations-year-1950-1959 |publisher=Yale University Department of History |access-date=22 August 2018}} won Yale's John Addison Porter Prize for original scholarship.{{cite book |title=Historical Register of Yale University, 1937–1951 |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019931958;view=1up;seq=88 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |page=80 |date=1952}}

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A longer version of the dissertation became his first book, Peace in Their Time: The Origins of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which went on to win the American Historical Association's 1952 George Louis Beer Prize.{{cite web |url=http://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/george-louis-beer-prize-recipients |title=George Louis Beer Prize Recipients |publisher=American Historical Association |access-date=December 24, 2017}} "This may not be the last book on the subject, but it should be," wrote historian Richard W. Leopold of Northwestern University.

Ferrell was an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C., during the Korean War. After leaving the Air Force, he taught at Michigan State in 1952–53. He then moved to Indiana University in Bloomington, where he taught for many years, starting as an assistant professor in 1953 and rising to distinguished professor of history in 1974. He held several notable visiting professorships, including Yale in 1955–56 and the University of Cairo in 1958–59, the universities of South Carolina, Wisconsin and Nebraska in the late 1950s, and the Naval War College in 1974.{{cite book |last=Clifford |first=J. Garry |editor1-last=Clifford |editor1-first=J. Garry |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=Theodore A. |title=Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals: Essays Honoring Robert H. Ferrell |location=Columbia, Mo. |publisher=University of Missouri Press |date=2007 |pages=307–315 |chapter=The Young Bob Ferrell |isbn=978-0-8262-1747-9}}

In 1971, he was elected the fourth president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR).{{cite web |title=Past Presidents |url=https://shafr.org/about/governance/past-presidents |website=Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations |access-date=2018-10-06}} He made nine appearances on C-SPAN to discuss his books and historical events,{{cite web |url=https://www.c-span.org/person/?robertferrell |title=Robert H. Ferrell |publisher=C-SPAN |access-date=19 September 2018}} and was a featured expert in the History Channel's 2005 documentary series The Presidents.{{cite AV media |date=2005 |title=The Presidents : The Lives and Legacies of the 43 Leaders of the United States |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60583878 |access-date=2018-09-05 |format=Television|location=New York City |publisher=A&E Television Networks |isbn=9780767077606 |oclc=60583878 }} In a 2000 Chicago Sun-Times article, Ferrell ranked Abraham Lincoln, Truman and George Washington as the three best presidents in history.

Ferrell considered teaching a core part of his career, and worked to improve the quality of history teaching in general. In 1964, working with Maurice Glen Baxter and John E. Wiltz, he conducted a thorough survey of every high-school history teacher and school librarian in Indiana, writing up their findings along with detailed suggestions to help unprepared teachers in the 1964 book The Teaching of American History in High Schools.{{cite journal |last=Wolf |first=Hazel C. |date=1965 |title=Book Reviews: The Teaching of American History in High Schools |journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=436–439 |jstor=40190203 }}

He supervised 35 Ph.D. students from 1961 to 1988.{{cite book |editor1-last=Clifford |editor1-first=J. Garry |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=Theodore A. |title=Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals: Essays Honoring Robert H. Ferrell |location=Columbia, Mo. |publisher=University of Missouri Press |date=2007 |pages=327–329 |chapter=Robert H. Ferrell's Ph.D. Students |isbn=978-0-8262-1747-9}} Many of his students became history professors themselves. His students, both Ph.D. and otherwise, included Eugene P. Trani, former president of Virginia Commonwealth University; American Spectator founder Emmett Tyrrell;{{cite news | last=Tyrrell | first=R. Emmett Jr. |author-link=Emmett Tyrrell |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/aug/21/death-of-a-historian-robert-h-ferrell/ |title=Death of a historian, Robert H. Ferrell |work=The Washington Times |date=2018-08-21 |access-date=2018-08-23 }} William B. Pickett, a professor emeritus of history at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana and author of Eisenhower Decides To Run; historian and author Arnold A. Offner, past president of SHAFR; Reginald Horsman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor and author of Race and Manifest Destiny;{{cite book|author=Reginald Horsman|title=Race and Manifest Destiny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TSc3iKP3ZkC|year=1981|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-94805-1}} Terry H. Anderson, history professor at Texas A&M University and author of The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action;{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Terry H. |title=The pursuit of fairness: a history of affirmative action |url=https://archive.org/details/pursuitoffairnes00ande |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford New York |year=2004 |isbn=9780195182453 }} [https://books.google.com/books?id=B5TauuzZ33EC Preview.] Ross Gregory, history professor at Western Michigan University and author of Walter Hines Page: Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s; national security and intelligence expert Melvin Goodman, author of Whistleblower at the CIA; Theodore A. Wilson, history professor at the University of Kansas and author of The First Summit: Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay, 1941;{{cite web |title=Theodore A. Wilson |url=https://history.ku.edu/theodore-wilson |website=University of Kansas |date=7 May 2013 |access-date=2018-10-06}} and John Garry Clifford, professor of political science at the University of Connecticut.

After his 1988 retirement, SHAFR named the annual Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize in his honor for distinguished scholarship in the field.{{cite web |title=Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize |url=https://shafr.org/content/robert-h-ferrell-book-prize-0 |website=Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations |access-date=22 August 2018}} More than a dozen of his former students, all historians in their own right, compiled the book Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals: Essays Honoring Robert H. Ferrell to recognize his achievements in the field.{{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Lawrence |editor1-last=Clifford |editor1-first=J. Garry |editor2-last=Wilson |editor2-first=Theodore A. |title=Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals: Essays Honoring Robert H. Ferrell |location=Columbia, Mo. |publisher=University of Missouri Press |date=2007 |pages=307–315 |chapter=Robert H. Ferrell: An Appreciation |isbn=978-0-8262-1747-9}}

Ferrell wrote prolifically, sharing with Bemis a disapproval of what they called "one-book men" who stopped writing after finishing a Ph.D. dissertation. He published 25 books before his 1988 retirement from teaching, and before his death had produced more than 60. His prose was "expressed with grace and economy, [and] a light wit," wrote historian Lawrence Kaplan. After the publication of Peace in Their Time, his early works included influential history textbooks American Diplomacy in the Great Depression and American Diplomacy: A History, the latter of which was republished in expanded and revised editions three times in the ensuing decades. He continued to work closely with his mentor Bemis, co-editing the later volumes of the series American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy which Bemis had begun in the 1920s, and also writing the entries on Frank B. Kellogg, Henry L. Stimson, and George Marshall. He helped edit Bemis' Pulitzer-winning 1949 biography, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, and catalyzed the publication of a 1957 paperback edition of Bemis' The Diplomacy of the American Revolution.{{cite book|author=Samuel Flagg Bemis|title=The Diplomacy of the American Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3-aAAAAIAAJ|year=1957|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253200068}}

Ferrell was also notable for the thoroughness and depth of his research, with a knack for finding obscure or unpublished diaries, memoirs, and letters which would then become central elements of his books, such as the papers of Coolidge-era assistant secretary of state William Castle, which greatly informed Peace in Their Time. Editing and publishing the diaries and private letters of persons of historical interest, from presidents to ordinary soldiers, became a specialty of his, with nearly two dozen such books to his name, including presidents Truman, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge (and his wife Grace) and Dwight Eisenhower, White House staffers James Hagerty, Frank Comerford Walker, Arthur F. Burns and Eben Ayers, and soldiers in the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Spanish–American War, and the Mexican–American War.

Not content to be a passive chronicler of history, Ferrell would often, when he felt a topic merited it, engage in spirited critique of other historians' interpretations of past events. In the influential 1955 article "Pearl Harbor and the Revisionists," he argued against the conspiracy theory that Franklin Roosevelt had deliberately allowed Japan to commit the surprise attack that drew the U.S. into World War II. His book Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists argued against post-1960s New Left historians' critiques of the Truman era. Reactions to the book were divided: Writing for Michigan State University's H-Net, Curt Cardwell felt that Ferrell misunderstood the arguments of the younger generation he criticized and was "condescending,"{{cite web |url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13686 |title=Review of Ferrell, Robert H., Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists |last=Cardwell |first=Curt |date=October 2007 |website=H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews |access-date=27 May 2018}} while Alonzo L. Hamby's review in Journal of Cold War Studies called the book "restrained and gentlemanly" and noted that Ferrell viewed prominent revisionist William Appleman Williams as a friend.{{cite journal |last=Hamby |first=Alonzo L. |date=Fall 2015 |title=Book Review: Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists by Robert H. Ferrell|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/606039 |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=203–204 |doi=10.1162/JCWS_r_00607|s2cid=57562585 |access-date=September 19, 2018}} In a 1995 article in American Heritage, he accused Merle Miller, author of the bestselling book Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry. S. Truman, of fabricating many of the quotes attributed to Truman.{{cite book|author=Michael T. Benson|title=Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmoab5xc9ogC&pg=PA37|year=1997 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-95807-7|pages=37–}} In 1998's The Dying President, Ferrell examined Franklin D. Roosevelt's medical records and concluded that Roosevelt had deliberately chosen to keep the cardiovascular disease which would soon kill him secret from the public. The book was praised by historian John Lukacs as “painstaking and exceptionally researched … sparklingly well-written, bearing the marks of a master historian” and one of the most important books on Roosevelt by any historian.{{cite news |last=Lukacs |first=John |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jul-26-bk-7140-story.html|title=His Secret Life |work=Los Angeles Times |location=Los Angeles |date=1998-07-26 |access-date=2018-09-08 }}

Ferrell wrote voluminously on Truman, devoting more than a dozen books to his life and presidency. Ferrell's work rehabilitated the reputation of the Truman presidency, which had been previously considered a failure by scholars, by providing evidence of how decisions such as Truman's choice to champion the Marshall Plan led to the successful establishment of an American-led post-war world order. Although it was overshadowed by the popular success of David McCullough's Pulitzer-winning Truman biography, Ferrell's 1994 Harry S. Truman: A Life was considered a masterwork by scholars in his field. Historian Lawrence Kaplan called it "the height of his achievement," with far more detailed analysis than McCullough's book.

Ferrell's discovery of a cache of hundreds of letters from Truman to his wife, previously thought to have been burned, led to his 1983 book Dear Bess: The Letters From Harry to Bess Truman, 1910–1959, a New York Times bestseller.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/25/books/best-sellers-fiction.html |title=Best Sellers: Nonfiction |work=The New York Times |date=1983-09-25 |access-date=2018-09-11 }}

Coincidentally, Ferrell and Truman were born on the same day, May 8.

World War I was a special interest of Ferrell's—in particular the 1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest and bloodiest U.S. operation of the war, in which Ferrell's father and then-Capt. Harry Truman both served. His books on the conflict include America's Deadliest Battle, Collapse at Meuse-Argonne, and a profile of the American Expeditionary Forces' only African-American division, Unjustly Dishonored, as well as several edited memoirs of soldiers who served in it. One of his final books, 2008's The Question of MacArthur's Reputation, painstakingly reconstructed the events of the Meuse-Argonne, a victory which helped launch the career of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, to prove that MacArthur had lied about his role in the battle to embellish his prestige and take undeserved credit, which has since been proved as mostly baseless.{{cite news |last=Messenger |first=Robert |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122748953285352037 |title=The Search For a Hero |work=The Wall Street Journal |location=New York City |date=2008-11-04 |access-date=2018-09-07 }}

In addition to the John Addison Porter Prize and George Louis Beer Prize for his early work on the Kellogg-Briand Pact, Ferrell received the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations' Norman and Laura Graebner Award in 1998, which recognizes distinguished lifetime achievement by a senior historian of United States foreign relations.{{cite web | title = The Norman and Laura Graebner Award | url = https://shafr.org/content/norman-and-laura-graebner-award-0 | website = Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations | access-date = 2018-09-21}} In 2002, Ferrell was given the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award for editing a trio of memoirs by soldier William S. Triplet, A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne, A Colonel in the Armored Divisions, and In the Philippines and Okinawa.{{cite web |url=http://www.smh-hq.org/awards/books.html |title=Distinguished Book Awards |author= |website=Society for Military History |access-date=2018-09-21}}

His wife, Lila, died in 2002.{{cite news |last=Sandomir |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Sandomir |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/obituaries/robert-h-ferrell-dead-truman-historian.html |title=Robert H. Ferrell, Authority on Truman, Is Dead at 97 |work=The New York Times |date=2018-08-22 |access-date=2018-08-23 }} They had a daughter, Carolyn.{{r|babcock|p=vii}}{{r|Ferrell2011|p=xi}} He was an inveterate collector of books, owning more than 10,000 volumes.

He died of heart disease in Chelsea, Michigan at age 97.{{cite news |last=Schudel |first=Matt |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/robert-h-ferrell-presidential-historian-and-truman-biographer-dies-at-97/2018/08/23/62f8bc56-a6ec-11e8-8fac-12e98c13528d_story.html?noredirect=on |title=Robert H. Ferrell, presidential historian and Truman biographer, dies at 97 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2018-08-23 |access-date=2018-08-26 }}

Ferrell's papers, writings and correspondence, comprising 200,000 items, are archived at Indiana University's Lilly Library.{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/mss/index.php?p=ferrell |title=Ferrell mss. |author= |website=Lilly Library Manuscript Collections |date=6 December 2013 |publisher=Indiana University |access-date=2018-09-18}}

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?77425-1/the-strange-deaths-president-harding Booknotes interview with Ferrell on The Strange Deaths of President Harding, January 12, 1997], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?186898-1/five-days-october-lost-battalion Presentation by Ferrell on Five Days in October: The Lost Battalion, May 14, 2005], C-SPAN | video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?76385-1/illness-death-president-f-roosevelt Lecture by Ferrell: Illness and Death of President F. Roosevelt, Oct. 30, 1996], C-SPAN | video4 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?68871-1/chief-justice-john-jay-legacy-part-1 Lecture by Ferrell: Chief Justice John Jay's Legacy, Dec. 12, 1995], C-SPAN |video5=[http://ashbrook.org/event/colloqui-2005-ferrell/ Ashbrook Colloquium presentation by Ferrell: Good Fortune in Politics: The Case of Calvin Coolidge, Jan. 28, 2005] | video6 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?71554-1/president-truman-biographies Organization of American Historians panel on Truman biographies, including Robert Ferrell's Harry S. Truman: A Life, Alonzo Hamby's Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman and David McCullough's Truman."], C-SPAN}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|

• Peace in Their Time: The Origins of the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1952)^{[Subject matter: The Kellogg-Briand Pact]}{{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Peace in Their Time: The Origins of the Kellogg-Briand Pact|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pvLSAAAAMAAJ|year=1952|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0393004915}}
• "Pearl Harbor and the Revisionists" in The Historian (Spring 1955){{cite journal |last=Ferrell |first=Robert H. |date=Spring 1955 |title=Pearl Harbor and the Revisionists |journal= The Historian |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages= 215–233 |doi= 10.1111/j.1540-6563.1955.tb00177.x|jstor=24442314 }}
• "The Mukden Incident: September 18–19, 1931" in Journal of Modern History (March 1955) {{cite journal |last=Ferrell |first=Robert H. |date=March 1955 |title=The Mukden Incident: September 18–19, 1931 |journal= Journal of Modern History|publisher=University of Chicago Press |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages= 66–72 |doi= 10.1086/237763|jstor=1877701 |s2cid=144691966 }}
• American Diplomacy in the Great Depression: Hoover-Stimson Foreign Policy, 1929–1933 (1957){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=American Diplomacy in the Great Depression: Hoover-Stimson Foreign Policy, 1929–1933|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGWQAAAAIAAJ|year=1957|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9780208007490}}
• American Diplomacy: A History (1959, with updated editions in 1969, 1975, and 1987){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=American Diplomacy: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fNdvQgAACAAJ|year=1959|publisher=Norton|isbn=978-0-393-09309-4|lccn= 59006082}}
• The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy (edited volumes 11-19, 1958–1980);{{cite book|editor1=Samuel Flagg Bemis|editor2=Robert H. Ferrell|title=The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy|year=1958–80|publisher=Pageant Book Co. |oclc= 13893460}} wrote Vol. 11, Frank B. Kellogg and Henry L. Stimson (1963)^{[Subject matter: Frank B. Kellogg, Henry L. Stimson]}{{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy: Frank B. Kellogg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGN2AAAAMAAJ|year=1963|publisher=Cooper Square|isbn=9780815400691 }} and Vol. 15, George C. Marshall{{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy: Frank B. Kellogg|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=W7oaAQAAIAAJ |year=1966|publisher=Cooper Square|isbn=9780815400707}}
• Maurice Glen Baxter, Robert H. Ferrell, and John E. Wiltz, The Teaching of American History in High Schools (1964){{cite book|last1=Baxter|first1=Maurice Glen|last2=Ferrell|first2=Robert H.|author2-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|last3=Wiltz|first3=John E. |title=The Teaching of American History in High Schools|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLYOFv9kZUgC|year=1964|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780598574671}}
• Richard B. Morris, William Greenleaf and Robert H. Ferrell, America: A History of the People (1971){{cite book|author1=Richard B. Morris|author2= William Greenleaf|author3=Robert H. Ferrell|author3-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=America: A History of the People|year=1971|publisher= Rand McNally |lccn=70142735}}
• Samuel F. Wells, Jr., Robert H. Ferrell, and David F. Trask, The Ordeal of World Power: American Diplomacy Since 1900 (1975){{cite book|last1=Wells, Jr. |first1= Samuel F.|last2= Ferrell |first2= Robert H.|author-link2=Robert H. Ferrell|last3= Trask|first3= David F.|title=The Ordeal of World Power: American Diplomacy Since 1900|year=1975|publisher=Little, Brown|lccn= 75000187}}
• Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency (1983){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Harry S. Truman and the Modern American Presidency|year=1983|publisher=Little, Brown|lccn=82014889 }}
• Truman: A Centenary Remembrance, 1884–1972 (1984){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Truman: A Centenary Remembrance, 1884–1972|year=1984|publisher=Viking Press|lccn=83040222}}
• Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917–1921 (New American Nation Series, 1985){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917–1921|year=1985|publisher=Harper & Row|lccn=84048160}}
• "Truman's Place in History" in Reviews in American History (March 1990){{cite journal |last= Ferrell |first= Robert H. |author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|date= March 1990 |title= Truman's Place in History|journal= Reviews in American History |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages= 1–9 |doi= 10.2307/2702718|jstor= 2702718 }}
• Harry S. Truman: His Life On the Family Farms (1991){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title= Harry S. Truman: His Life On the Family Farms |year=1991|publisher=High Plains Pub. Co.|lccn= 90084548 |isbn= 978-0962333347}}
• Ill-Advised: Presidential Health and Public Trust (1992){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Ill-Advised: Presidential Health and Public Trust|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4PwONIqw3sC|year=1992|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1065-4|lccn= 92018527}}
• Choosing Truman: The Democratic Convention of 1944 (1994)^{[Subject matter: 1944 Democratic National Convention]}{{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Choosing Truman: The Democratic Convention of 1944|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxoOSV2l3IAC|year=1994|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-7298-0}}
• Harry S. Truman: A Life (1994){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Harry S. Truman: A Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7UXSMj3OF4oC|year=1994|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6045-1}}
• Francis H. Heller and Robert H. Ferrell, "Plain Faking?" in American Heritage (May–June 1995){{cite journal | journal = American Heritage | title = Plain Faking? | last1 = Ferrell | first1 = Robert H. | author-link1 = Robert Hugh Ferrell | last2 = Heller | first2 = Francis H. | volume = 46 | issue = 3 |date=May–June 1995 | url = http://www.americanheritage.com/content/plain-faking | access-date = November 8, 2011 }}
• The Strange Deaths of President Harding (1996){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The Strange Deaths of President Harding|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WPvpXlcqsbsC|year=1996|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1202-3}}
• Atlas of American History (1996, with Richard Natkiel){{cite book|author1=Robert H. Ferrell|author2=Richard Natkiel|title=Atlas of American History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvKPbwAACAAJ|date=April 1996|publisher=Facts on File|isbn=978-0-8160-3702-5|lccn= 84675628}}
• The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–1945 (1998){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5IFCGxb6ScC|year=1998|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1171-2|lccn= 97045797}}
• The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge (1998){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Rd3AAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0-7006-0892-8|lccn= 97051128}}
• Truman and Pendergast (1999){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Truman and Pendergast|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bknT7spGIZAC|year=1999|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6050-5|lccn= 99012736}}
• Harry S. Truman (American Presidents Reference Series, 2002){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Harry S. Truman|year=2003|publisher=CQ Press|lccn=2003020520 |isbn= 978-1568027661 |series=American Presidents Reference Series}}
• Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division (2004){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ph4pYaZyb0EC|year= 2004|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6239-4|lccn= 2004004300}}
• "A Tale of Two Archives" in Topic: The Washington & Jefferson College Review, vol. 54, "A Festschrift for Professor Walter S. Sanderlin" (2004){{cite journal| last = Ferrell| first =Robert H. | author-link =Robert H. Ferrell| title = A Tale of Two Archives| journal = Topic: The Washington & Jefferson College Review| volume = 53| issue = A Festschrift for Professor Walter S. Sanderlin| editor= Thomas Mainwaring| publisher = Washington & Jefferson College | year = 2004| url = http://www2.washjeff.edu/topic/issues.htm| issn =0049-4127}}
• Five Days in October: The Lost Battalion of World War I (2005)^{[Subject matter: Lost Battalion (World War I)]}{{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Five Days in October: The Lost Battalion of World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OhJPW4b8WmQC|year=2005|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6479-4|lccn= 2005001231}}
• Good Fortune in Politics: The Case of Calvin Coolidge (Ashbrook Colloquium, 2005){{cite AV media | people=Robert H. Ferrell | date=2005-01-28 | title=Good Fortune in Politics: The Case of Calvin Coolidge (Ashbrook Colloquium) | url = http://ashbrook.org/event/colloqui-2005-ferrell/ | access-date =2018-09-14| medium=Audio | location=Ashland, Ohio | publisher=Ashbrook Center at Ashland University }}
• Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists (2006){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YR1irwDCipMC|date=1 May 2006|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6520-3}}
• Presidential Leadership: From Woodrow Wilson to Harry S. Truman (2006){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Presidential Leadership: From Woodrow Wilson to Harry S. Truman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIxPpYPCRfQC|year=2006|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6490-9|lccn= 2005023511}}
• "Immigration and the Red Scare" in Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration (2006){{cite book|editor-last=Beasley|editor-first=Vanessa B.|chapter=Immigration and the Red Scare|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Who Belongs in America?: Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SL0EG_8Yd_8C&pg=PP15|date=11 July 2006|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=978-1-58544-505-9|pages=134–148}}
• America's Deadliest Battle: Meuse-Argonne, 1918 (2007){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=America's Deadliest Battle: Meuse-Argonne, 1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwRnAAAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0-7006-1499-8|lccn= 2006029077}}
• The Question of MacArthur's Reputation: Côte de Châtillon, October 14–16, 1918 (2008){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The Question of MacArthur's Reputation: Côte de Châtillon, October 14-16, 1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zrCIYfGlg4C|year=2008|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6651-4}}
• Grace Coolidge: The People's Lady in Silent Cal's White House (2008){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title= Grace Coolidge: The People's Lady in Silent Cal's White House |year=2008|publisher=University Press of Kansas |lccn=2007045737 |isbn= 9780700615636}}
• Unjustly Dishonored: An African American Division in World War I (2011){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Unjustly Dishonored: An African American Division in World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIaLeHvFSl8C|date=20 May 2011|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1916-9|lccn= 2012462746}}

}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|

• Conference of Scholars on the European Recovery Program, March 20–21, 1964, at the Harry S. Truman Library (Transcript of discussion led by Robert H. Ferrell, 1964){{cite book |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=Conference of Scholars on the European Recovery Program, March 20-21, 1964, at the Harry S. Truman Library|url= https://lccn.loc.gov/82232436 |year=1964|publisher=Harry S. Truman Library Institute for National and International Affairs|lccn=82232436}}
• Calvin Coolidge, The Talkative President: The Off-the-Record Press Conferences of Calvin Coolidge (1964){{cite book|author=Calvin Coolidge |editor1-last=Ferrell|editor1-first=Robert H.|editor1-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|editor2-last=Quint|editor2-first=Howard H. |title= The Talkative President: The Off-the-Record Press Conferences of Calvin Coolidge |year=1964|publisher=Garland Pub.|lccn=78066526|isbn= 978-0824097059}}
• Foundations of American Diplomacy, 1775–1872 (1968){{cite book |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Foundations of American Diplomacy, 1775–1872|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYsBAAAAMAAJ|year=1968|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=9780872491229|lccn= 72001652}}
• America As a World Power: 1872–1945 (1971){{cite book |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=America As a World Power: 1872–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTFTmy8uNekC|year=1971|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-87249-244-8|lccn= 73154053}}
• America In a Divided World, 1945–1972 (1975){{cite book |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=America In a Divided World, 1945–1972|year=1975|publisher=Harper & Row|lccn= 74007602}}
• Harry S. Truman, Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (1980){{cite book|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|author-link=Harry S. Truman |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVVffTwVVy4C|year=1980|publisher=Harper & Row|isbn=978-0-8262-1119-4}}
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, The Eisenhower Diaries (1981){{cite book|author=Dwight D. Eisenhower |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=The Eisenhower Diaries|year=1981|publisher=Norton|lccn= 80027866}}
• Harry S. Truman, Dear Bess: The Letters From Harry to Bess Truman, 1910–1959 (1983){{cite book|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|author-link=Harry S. Truman |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Dear Bess: The Letters From Harry to Bess Truman, 1910–1959|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6y0odeAgVDwC|year=1983|publisher=Norton|isbn=978-0-8262-1203-0}}
• James Hagerty, The Diary of James C. Hagerty: Eisenhower in Mid-Course, 1954–1955 (1983){{cite book|author=James Campbell Hagerty |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=The Diary of James C. Hagerty: Eisenhower in Mid-Course, 1954–1955|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XohAAAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253116253}}
• Joseph Douglas Lawrence, Fighting Soldier: The AEF in 1918 (1985){{cite book|author=Joseph Douglas Lawrence |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=Fighting Soldier: The AEF in 1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G7OsAAAAIAAJ|year=1985|publisher=Colorado Associated University Press|isbn=978-0-87081-158-6}}
• Curtis V. Hard, Banners In the Air: The Eighth Ohio Volunteers and the Spanish–American War (1988){{cite book|last=Hard|first=Curtis V.|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Banners In the Air: The Eighth Ohio Volunteers and the Spanish–American War|url=https://archive.org/details/bannersinair00hard|year=1988|publisher=Kent State University Press|lccn=88012033|isbn=978-0873383677}}
• Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana, Monterrey Is Ours!: The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Dana, 1845-1847 (1990){{cite book|last=Dana|first=Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh|author-link=Napoleon J.T. Dana|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title= Monterrey Is Ours!: The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Dana, 1845-1847 |year=1990|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|lccn=89029351|isbn= 978-0813117034}}
• Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (1991){{cite book|author=Eben A. Ayers |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZvgBPTJaVEC|year=1991|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-0790-6}}
• Grace Coolidge, Grace Coolidge: An Autobiography (1992){{cite book|author=Grace Coolidge|author-link=Grace Coolidge|editor1-last=Wikander|editor1-first=Lawrence E.|editor2-last=Ferrell|editor2-first=Robert H.|editor-link2=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Grace Coolidge: An Autobiography|url=https://archive.org/details/gracecoolidgeaut00cool|year=1992|publisher=High Plains Pub. Co.|lccn=92072825|isbn=978-1881019015}}
• Flavel C. Barber, Holding the Line: The Third Tennessee Infantry, 1861–1864 (1994){{cite book|author=Flavel C. Barber |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title= Holding the Line: The Third Tennessee Infantry, 1861–1864 |year=1994|publisher=Kent State University Press|lccn=94008653 |isbn= 978-0873385046}}
• The Twentieth Century: An Almanac (1995){{cite book|last=Ferrell|first=Robert H.|author-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The Twentieth Century: An Almanac|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ToKCq1z8ZCwC|year=1985|publisher=World Almanac Publications |editor1-last=Ferrell|editor1-first=Robert H.|editor1-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |editor2-last=Bowman|editor2-first=John S.|isbn=978-0-345-32630-0|lccn=83051725}}
• Harry S. Truman and the Bomb: A Documentary History (1996){{cite book|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Harry S. Truman and the Bomb: A Documentary History|url=https://archive.org/details/harrystrumanbomb0000unse|year=1996|publisher=High Plains Pub. Co.|lccn=96075053|isbn=978-1881019121|url-access=registration}}
• Frank C. Walker, FDR's Quiet Confidant: The Autobiography of Frank C. Walker (1997){{cite book|last=Walker|first=Frank Comerford|author-link=Frank Comerford Walker|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=FDR's Quiet Confidant: The Autobiography of Frank C. Walker|url=https://archive.org/details/fdrsquietconfida00walk|year=1997|publisher=University Press of Colorado|lccn=96054006|isbn=978-0870813979}}
• Rudolph H. Hartmann, The Kansas City Investigation: Pendergast's Downfall, 1938–1939 (1999){{cite book|last=Hartmann|first=Rudolph H. |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=The Kansas City Investigation: Pendergast's Downfall, 1938–1939|year=1999|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn= 99018273}}
• William S. Triplet, A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne: A Memoir, 1917–1918 (2000){{cite book|last=Triplet|first=William S. |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne: A Memoir, 1917–1918|year=2000|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn= 00029921}}
• William S. Triplet, A Colonel in the Armored Divisions: A Memoir, 1941–1945 (2001){{cite book|last=Triplet|first=William S.|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=A Colonel in the Armored Divisions: A Memoir, 1941–1945|url=https://archive.org/details/colonelinarmored00trip|year=2001|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn=00050781|isbn=978-0826213129|url-access=registration}}
• William S. Triplet, In the Philippines and Okinawa: A Memoir, 1945–1948 (2001){{cite book|last=Triplet|first=William S. |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title= In the Philippines and Okinawa: A Memoir, 1945–1948 |year=2001|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn= 2001027551|isbn= 978-0826213358}}
• The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman (2002) {{cite book|last=Truman|first=Harry S.|author-link=Harry S. Truman |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2qdqnsbUVFsC|year=2002|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-1445-4}}
• Elmer W. Sherwood, A Soldier in World War I: The Diary of Elmer W. Sherwood (2004){{cite book|author=Elmer W. Sherwood |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=A Soldier in World War I: The Diary of Elmer W. Sherwood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDTqDAAAQBAJ|year=2004|publisher=Indiana Historical Society Press|isbn=978-0-87195-173-1|lccn= 2003069168}}
• Hugh S. Thompson, Trench Knives and Mustard Gas: With the 42nd Rainbow Division in France (C. A. Brannen Series, No. 6) (2004){{cite book|author=Hugh S. Thompson |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=Trench Knives and Mustard Gas: With the 42nd Rainbow Division in France|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_s9SrElRkEC|date=14 May 2004|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=978-1-58544-290-4|lccn= 2003019696}}
• William M. Wright, Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Division Commander in World War I (2004){{cite book|author= William M. Wright |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title= Meuse-Argonne Diary: A Division Commander in World War I |year=2004|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn=2004001710|isbn= 978-0826215277}}
• Horace Leonard Baker, Argonne Days in World War I (2007){{cite book|author=Horace Leonard Baker |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title=Argonne Days in World War I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtMICP3dIFUC|year=2007|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=978-0-8262-6575-3}}
• Pierpont L. Stackpole, In the Company of Generals: The World War I Diary of Pierpont L. Stackpole (2009){{cite book|author= Pierpont L. Stackpole |editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell |title= In the Company of Generals: The World War I Diary of Pierpont L. Stackpole |year=2009|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn=2009028219 |isbn= 9780826218704}}
• Arthur F. Burns, Inside the Nixon Administration: The Secret Diary of Arthur Burns, 1969–1974 (2010){{cite book|author=Arthur F. Burns|author-link=Arthur F. Burns|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Inside the Nixon Administration: The Secret Diary of Arthur Burns, 1969–1974|url=https://archive.org/details/insidenixonadmin00burn|year=2010|publisher=University Press of Kansas|lccn=2010021333|isbn=9780700617302}}
• Conrad S. Babcock, Reminiscences of Conrad S. Babcock: The Old U.S. Army and the New, 1898–1918 (2012){{cite book|author=Conrad S. Babcock|editor-last=Ferrell|editor-first=Robert H.|editor-link=Robert Hugh Ferrell|title=Reminiscences of Conrad S. Babcock: The Old U.S. Army and the New, 1898–1918|url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesofc00babc|year=2012|publisher=University of Missouri Press|lccn=2012454782|isbn=9780826219817|url-access=registration}}

}}

{{reflist}}

• {{C-SPAN|41827}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname= Robert Ferrell}}

{{Robert Hugh Ferrell}}

{{Cold War}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrell, Robert H.}}

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