Immersed in Great Affairs: Allan Nevins and the Heroic Age of American History

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Immersed in Great Affairs Allan Nevins and the Heroic Age of American History GERALD L. FETNER STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Published by State University of New York Press, Albany© 2004 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, N.Y., 12207 Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fetner, Gerald L. Immersed in great affairs : Allan Nevins and the heroic age of American history / Gerald L. Fetner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical reference (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7914-5973-X (acid-free paper). 1. Nevins, Allan, 1890–1971. 2. Historians—United States— Biography. 3. United States—Historiography. 4. Journalists— United States—Biography. I. Title. E175.5.N48F47 2004 973'.07'202—dc21 [B] 2003045655 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Leslee A man of puckish wit and inexhaustible vitality, of superb courage and old-fashioned Scottish virtues, a captive to the fast vanishing Puritan ethos, Allan was no ivory tower academician. He immersed himself in great affairs. —Tribute by Richard Morris at a Memorial Service for Nevins, 11 October 1971, St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University . . . I have an intense, almost a passionate conviction that in a great democracy like ours, making way through most troubled waters, history has a broad democratic function to discharge as teacher, guide, and inspirer. —Allan Nevins to Evarts Greene, 17 February 1939 The affairs of men are far too complicated for safe generalizations— except that generalization—and we must step from tuft to tuft through the morass. —Learned Hand to Allan Nevins, 12 September 1951 ...