Thomas J. McCormick

{{short description|American historian}}

Thomas J. McCormick (March 6, 1933 – July 25, 2020){{cite web |title=McCormick, Thomas Joseph, Jr. |url=https://madison.com/news/local/obituaries/mccormick-thomas-joseph-jr/article_31e7a7b2-7cd5-50d9-9a76-0b7b0becb2db.html |publisher=Madison.com |access-date=21 January 2021}} was an American academic who was emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the same place he got a Ph.

D.{{cite web|title=History Department Emeriti/Emeritae|url=http://history.wisc.edu/people/emeriti.htm|access-date=24 May 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208072756/http://history.wisc.edu/people/emeriti.htm|archive-date=8 December 2010}} where he succeeded William Appleman Williams and continued the groundbreaking work of the so-called Wisconsin School of diplomatic history. Indeed he is considered one of the core members of the Wisconsin School, along with Williams, Walter LaFeber, and Lloyd Gardner.{{cite journal | title=Some Reflections on the Historiography of the Cold War | first=Edward | last=Crapol | journal=The History Teacher | volume=20 | issue=2 |pages = 251–262| date=February 1987 |jstor = 493031| doi=10.2307/493031 }}{{cite book | first=James G. | last=Morgan | title=Into New Territory: American Historians and the Concept of American Imperialism | location= Madison | publisher= University of Wisconsin Press | date=2014 | page=172}} He has used Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems approach to describe the dynamics of hegemony in US diplomatic history{{cite web |last1=Gale |first1=Thomas |title=Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450 |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/modern-world-system-analysis |website=Modern World-System Analysis |access-date=30 August 2019}} and also studied US corporatism.{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=William A. |title=The Contours of American History |date=1961 |publisher=W. W. Norton Company |isbn=9780393305616}}

McCormick taught at the Ohio University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Wisconsin–Madison where he won the Wisconsin Student Association Award for Teaching Excellence (1992-1993). He was a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow (1981), Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer at University College Dublin (1993-1994), and Vilas Associate (1996-1998). McCormick authored six books (see Works) and many influential articles.{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Insular Imperialism and the Open Door: The China Market and the Spanish-American War |journal=Pacific Historical Review |date=1963}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=The State of American Diplomatic History |journal=The State of American History |date=1971}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Exporting the Social Question |journal=New Perspectives in American History |date=1972}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Drift or Mastery? The Corporatist Synthesis in American Diplomatic History |journal=The Promise of American History |date=1982}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Every System Needs A Center Sometime--An Essay on Hegemony and Modern American Foreign Policy |journal=Redefining the Past |date=1978}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Systemic Explanations |journal=Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations |date=1991}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=The 1890s as Watershed Decade |journal=Safeguarding the Republic, 1890-1990 |date=1992}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Walking the Tightrope: Adolf A. Berle, Jr. and America's Journey from Social to Global Capitalism, 1933-1945 |journal=Behind the Throne: Servants of Power to Imperial Presidents, 1898-1968 |date=1993}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Creating the New Co-Prosperity Sphere: The United States, Japan and Asia, 1945-1954 |journal=Bulletin of Asian Studies |date=1994 |volume=IV}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=American Hegemony and European Autonomy, 1989-2003: One Framework for Understanding the War in Iraq |journal=The New American Empire |date=2005}} He often gave US guest lectures{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=American Hegemony and the Roots of the Vietnam War |journal=Louis B. Sears Lectures |date=1988}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=The Spanish-American War and American China Policy |journal=Association of Asian Studies |date=1962 }}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=The State of American Diplomatic History |journal=Organization of American Historians |date=1969}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Social History, Corporatism, and American Diplomatic History |journal=Woodrow Wilson Center |date=1981}} as well as several keynote addresses at worldwide conferences.{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=The Corporatist Synthesis in American Diplomatic History |journal=Japanese Association of American Studies |date=1983 |place=Kyoto, Japan}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Glancing Backward, Looking Forward: A Retrospective on the World-System and its Prospects for the Next Quarter-Century |journal=Japan Foundation's Center for Global Partnership and the American Center |date=1993 |place=Osaka, Japan}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=The Promise and Perils of American Hegemony |journal=French Association of American Studies

|date=1996 |place=Lyon, France}}{{cite journal |last1=McCormick |first1=Thomas |title=Modern Hegemony and the Rhythms of History |journal=Japanese Association of Western History|date=2000|place=Osaka, Japan}}

On December 4, 2023, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Senate Faculty passed a memorial resolution{{cite web |title=Memorial Resolution of the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison On the Death of Professor Emeritus Thomas J. McCormick |url=https://kb.wisc.edu/images/group222/shared/2023-12-04FacultySenate/3125MRMcCormick.pdf |website=University of Wisconsin-Madison |publisher=UW-Madison Faculty}} honoring the career and life of Professor Thomas J. McCormick.