Henry Steele Commager, 1902 - 1998
Born: 25 October 1902, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died: 2 March 1998, Amherst, Massachusetts
Commager was orphaned early in life and raised by his maternal grandfather, a paster in the Danish Lutheran Church, first at Toledo, Ohio and then Chicago. He got a job in the University of Chicago library which gave him the opportunity to study there, earning his B.A. (1923), M.A. (1924), and Ph.D. (1928). He began teaching at New York University in 1926, moved to Columbia University in 1936, and finally to Amherst College in 1956 where he taught until 1992. He also was a visiting professor at several American universities as well as both Cambridge and Oxford. He wrote clearly of American history and argued passionately for the import of the Bill of Rights, against McCarthyism, against Viet Nam, and against questionable policies of Nixon and Reagan. He wrote or edited at least fifteen volumes of history and over 700 essays and reviews. He strongly believed that historians ought not stay in the ivory tower but to share their perspective with the public and he was a tireless public speaker on the subjects he knew best. He died of pneumonia at home under the care of Mary, his second wife.
Biography from Wikipedia and Richard B. Bernstein on commager.org
Henry Steele Commager quotes:
Quotes found : 21 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 2) 1 2 Next
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- A free society cherishes nonconformity. It knows that from the non-conformist, from the eccentric, have come many of the great ideas of freedom. Free society must fertilize the soil in which non-conformity and dissent and individualism can grow. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, became great through experimentation. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - And we wonder what can be that 'philosophy of education' which believes that young people can be trained to the duties of citizenship by wrapping their minds in cotton wool. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - "Who is Loyal to America?" in Freedom, Loyalty, and Dissent (1954) - Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Every effort to confine Americanism to a single pattern, to constrain it to a single formula, is disloyalty to everything that is valid in Americanism. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Freedom is not a luxury that we can indulge in when at last we have security and prosperity and enlightenment; it is, rather, antecedent to all of these, for without it we can have neither security nor prosperity nor enlightenment. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Freedom, Loyalty, and Dissent (1954) - History, we can confidently assert, is useful in the sense that art and music, poetry and flowers, religion and philosophy are useful. Without it — as with these — life would be poorer and meaner; without it we should be denied some of those intellectual and moral experiences which give meaning and richness to life. Surely it is no accident that the study of history has been the solace of many of the noblest minds of every generation. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function, it must have dissent. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Freedom, Loyalty, and Dissent (1954) - In the long run [censorship] will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - It seems fair to say that while the moral standards of the nineteenth century persisted almost unchanged into the twentieth, moral practices changed sharply, and that though the standards of the nineteenth century persisted the institutions that had sustained them and the sanctions that had enforced them lost influence and authority. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880s (1950) - It's awfully hard to be the son of a great man and also of a half-crazy woman. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Freedom and Order (1966) - Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - The Bill of Rights was not written to protect governments from trouble. It was written precisely to give the people the constitutional means to cause trouble for governments they no longer trusted. permalink
Henry Steele Commager - Letter to the editor in The New York Times (1971). - The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. permalink
Henry Steele Commager
Quotes found : 21 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 2) 1 2 Next
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