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C. Vann Woodward

シー・ヴァン・ウッドワード

C. Vann Woodward

Aliases: Comer Vann Woodward

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1908-11-13 （Vanndale, Arkansas, U.S.）
Died
1999-12-17 （Hamden, Connecticut, U.S.） age 91
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Vanndale, Arkansas → Atlanta, Georgia → New York, NY (Columbia University) → Chapel Hill, North Carolina (UNC) → Baltimore, Maryland (Johns Hopkins University) → New Haven/Hamden, Connecticut (Yale; death place)

Career

Occupations
Historian, Professor, Editor, Author
Active Years
1930-1999
Affiliations
Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (member), American Philosophical Society (member), Fellowship of Southern Writers (charter member), National Association of Scholars (affiliated)
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Fellowship of Southern Writers, National Association of Scholars
Influenced By
Charles A. Beard, W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Howard K. Beale
Influenced
John W. Blassingame, James M. McPherson, Steven Hahn, Barbara J. Fields, Edward L. Ayers

Education

Henderson-Brown College (now Henderson State University)
Period: 1928–1930
Country: United States
Attended for two years before transferring to Emory University
Emory University
Degree: BA
Period: 1930
Year of Graduation: 1930
Country: United States
Received B.A.
Columbia University
History / Sociology (graduate study)
Degree: MA
Period: 1931–1932
Year of Graduation: 1932
Country: United States
Received M.A.; encountered figures of the Harlem Renaissance and was influenced by them.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
History (graduate study)
Degree: PhD
Period: 1932–1937
Year of Graduation: 1937
Country: United States
Ph.D. dissertation on Tom Watson (advisor: Howard K. Beale)

Awards

Bancroft Prize
1952
Work: Origins of the New South, 1877–1913
Organization: Columbia University
Result: 受賞
Jefferson Lecture (National Endowment for the Humanities)
1978
Work: Lecture: "The European Vision of America" (incorporated into The Old World's New World)
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Result: 選出／講演
Pulitzer Prize for History
1982
Work: Mary Chesnut's Civil War (editor)
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Strange Career of Jim Crow

1955 History (American South; race relations)

Argues that Jim Crow segregation was not an inevitable post–Civil War development but a product of late 19th-century political and social forces; the book significantly influenced interpretations of Southern history and the Civil Rights movement.

Race relationsSouthern historyOrigins of institutionalized segregation

Origins of the New South, 1877–1913

1951 History (Southern socio-economic history)

A multi-volume study combining a Beardian economic interpretation with a tragic tone about the South's post-Reconstruction transformation; it challenged Lost Cause mythology and boosterist narratives of the New South.

Economic forcesPost-Reconstruction SouthReinterpretation of historical narratives

The Battle for Leyte Gulf

1947 Military history

A detailed study of the largest naval battle in history, the Battle for Leyte Gulf; became a standard work on the engagement.

Military operationsNaval warfareWorld War II

Mary Chesnut's Civil War (editor)

1981 Edited primary source / History

An edited and annotated edition of Mary Chesnut's Civil War diaries; Woodward's edition, through commentary and selection, was acclaimed by scholars and general readers and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Primary source editingAmerican Civil WarSouthern perspectives

Bibliography

  • Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel (1938)
  • The Battle for Leyte Gulf (1947)
  • Origins of the New South, 1877–1913 (1951)
  • The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955)
  • The Burden of Southern History (1955; 3rd ed. 1993)
  • Mary Chesnut's Civil War (editor) (1981)
  • Thinking Back: The Perils of Writing History (1986)
  • The Old World's New World (1991)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Clear, narrative-driven proseAnalytical approach influenced by Beardian economic interpretationBlend of scholarly essays and accessible commentary
Recurring Motifs
Transformation and decline of the SouthRace relations and the origins of institutionalized discriminationReassessment and reinterpretation of historical narratives

Legacy

Woodward was a decisive influence on 20th-century scholarship on the American South and race relations. Works such as The Strange Career of Jim Crow shaped debates during the Civil Rights era; he supervised many doctoral students and left institutional legacies, including the C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize in Southern history.

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • American Philosophical Society
  • Fellowship of Southern Writers

Archives

  • Yale University Library: C. Vann Woodward Papers

Quotes

  • Professionals do well to apply the term "amateur" with caution to the historian outside their ranks. The word does have deprecatory and patronizing connotations that occasionally backfire. This is especially true of narrative history, which nonprofessionals have all but taken over. The gradual withering of the narrative impulse in favor of the analytical urge among professional academic historians has resulted in a virtual abdication of the oldest and most honored role of the historian, that of storyteller. Having abdicated... the professional is in a poor position to patronize amateurs who fulfill the needed function he has abandoned.
    Source: Essay excerpt / contributions such as New York Review of Books (1975)

Trivia

  • His son Peter V. Woodward died in 1969 at age 26.
  • Served in the U.S. Navy during World War II writing histories of major battles.
  • Won the Pulitzer Prize for his edited edition of Mary Chesnut's Civil War diaries.
  • Served as Sterling Professor at Yale and supervised many PhD students.