Biographical Chronology of Henry S. Commager

With his Brothers

1902: Oct 25 - Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1923: Completed A.B. at the University of Chicago
1924: Completed M.A. at the University of Chicago
1924-25: Studied at University of Copenhagen as an American-Scandinavian Foundation fellow.
1926-38: Taught at New York University
Began reviewing books for the New York Tribune
1928: Married Evan Alexa Carroll
Completed Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Thesis: Struensee and the Reform Movement in Denmark
1929: Received American Historical Association's Herbert Baxter Adams Prize for most distinguished first monograph
Congo Gods by Otto Luten, translated by HSC
1930-80: Growth of the American Republic, with Samuel Eliot Morrison
1932: Son, Henry Steele, Jr. born

Henry Steele Commager with his mother and brothers

With Mother & Brothers

1934-88: Documents of American History
1934: Daughter, Nellie Thomas, born
1934-41: Our Nation, with Eugene C. Barker
1936: Theodore Parker: Crusader for Freedom
1939-56: Taught at Columbia University
1939: New York Times Magazine series advocating interventionist role in Europe
Heritage of America, edited with Allan Nevins
1940-46: History Editor for Oxford University Press
1940: Member of Committee to Defend America by Defending the Allies
Elected to membership of Massachusetts Historical Society
Daughter, Elisabeth Carroll, born
1941: Bacon Lecturer at Boston University
1940-49: Wrote regular column for The Scholastic for middle and high school students
1942-86: The Pocket History of the United States, co-authored with Alan Nevins,

Graduation 1923
With his Grandfather

1942: Richards Lecturer at University of Virginia
Inaugurated American Studies at Cambridge University
Appointed to editorial board of The American Scholar
1942-43: Visiting Professor of American History Cambridge University, Peterhouse College
1943: America: Story of a Free People, with Allan Nevins
1943: Special representative of the Office of War Information "to fulfill lecture arrangements scheduled by the British Ministry of Information"
Appointed to the War Department's Historical Branch Advisory Committee
1944: Recorded "nonpolitical talks" on American electoral process for the Office of War Information to be broadcast to Europeans on shortwave radio
Majority Rule, Minority Rights
1945: Consultant to the United States Army, attached to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
The Pocket History of the United States released under the title A Short History of the United States, with Allan Nevins
The Story of the Second World War
1947-48: Pitt Professor at Cambridge University
1947: Who is Loyal to America? published in Harper's
Edited America in Perspective
1948-51: President of American branch of PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists and Novelists)
1948: The St. Nicholas Anthology, edited by HSC
1950: The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character since the 1880s
The Blue and the Gray
1951: Appointed to the Foreign Policy Association Editorial Advisory Committee
Lecturer at Salzburg Seminar in American Studies
Living Ideas in America
Robert E. Lee
1952: Elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters
Attended the Fulbright Conference on American Studies at Cambridge
1952-53: Held the first Harmsworth Professorship at Oxford University
1953: Lectured at Royal University Uppsala as Gottesman Professor
Guilt - and Innocence - By Association published in the New York Times
1954: Europe and America Since 1942, co-authored with Geoffrey Bruun
Encyclopedia of American History, with Richard B. Morris (last edition 1996)
Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent
Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent earned Sidney Hillman Foundation Award
Lectured at German universities, sponsored by US State Department
1954: Nov 24 Interviewed on CBS television program Chronoscope
1954-55: Zuskind Professor at Brandeis University
1954-94: New American Nation Series launched by Harper & Row with HSC and R.B. Morris as editors (the series continues today)
1956: Fulbright Professor of American History at the University of Copenhagen
Joined faculty at Amherst College
1957: Visiting Professor at University of Aix en Provence
The First Book of American History
Lecture series at Port of Spain, Trinidad
1957: Awarded Knight of Order of Dannebrog, first class, by King of Denmark
1958: The Spirit of Seventy Six with Richard Morris
The Great Declaration
Lecturer, University of Israel
1959: Served on screening committee for the Fulbright Scholarship
1960-61: Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship to study American nationalism
1960: Appointed Gino Speranza Lecturer on American Traditions and Ideals at Columbia University
Supported Senator John F. Kennedy as a member of organization Intellectuals for Kennedy
The Great Proclamation
1960: Editorial advisory committee for the Woodrow Wilson Papers
1961: Historical consultant to NBC television series The Americans
Appeared on ABC television show Meet the Professor
The Great Constitution
1962: Appointed to the United States National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Crusaders for Freedom
1963: Begins as Advisory Editor of History for Charles H. Merrill Books
1963: Jul 31 - The Dialogues of Allan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager broadcast on CBS Television Network
1964: Commonwealth Lecturer, University of London
Harris lecturer, Northwestern University
1965: Visiting Lecturer, National University of Mexico (UNAM)
Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples, edited by HSC
The Nature and Study of History
1966: Elected to the National Academy of Arts & Letters
Television the Medium in TV Guide
Was America a Mistake?, co-authored with Elmo Giordianetti
Freedom and Order
Began protesting US involvement in Vietnam in the pages of New York Times and elsewhere
1967: Freedom and Reform edited by Harold Hyman and Leonard Levy
published in honor of HSC
Chaired the Massachusetts Dissenting Democrats
The Search for a Usable Past
The Struggle for Racial Equality
1967: Feb 20 - Appeared before Senate Foreign Relations Committee to address Foreign Policy issues
1967-87: On the board of the National Committee for Effective Congress (NCEC)

July 1980

1968: The Commonwealth of Learning
Active with Citizens for Eugene McCarthy
1968: Mar 28 - Evan (Carroll) Commager died
1970: Pledged the gift of nearly 6,000 volumes to the newly founded Hampshire College Library
1971: Retires and becomes Professor Emeritus; immediately appointed to the John Woodruff Simpson Chair, previously held by Robert Frost and Archibald MacLeish, at Amherst College
Founded Evan Carroll Commager Scholarship at Amherst College
1971: Served Library of Congress as Honorary Consultant in American History
Received American Academy of Arts & Letters Gold Medal for History
Mar 8 - Appeared before Senate Foreign Relations Committee on War Powers Act
1972: Mar 1 - Addressed the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure on issue of amnesty for Vietnam draft resisters
1972: Awarded American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for History
Appears in GODSPELL Goes to Plimoth (sic) Plantation for Thanksgiving with Henry Steele Commager, produced by WGBH-TV
1973: Oct - New York Times headline: Commager Urges Nixon Impeachment
1974: Britain Through American Eyes
The Defeat of America
A Conversation with Henry Steele Commager aired on Bill Moyer's Journal
Keynote speaker at Parker House, New England Circle
1974: Visiting Lecturer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Honorary Admiral in Nebraska Navy
1977: Empire of Reason
Concise History of the American Republic, with William Leuctenberg joining Morrison and Commager
Held Patten Lectureship at Indiana University

Henry & Mary
Wedding

1979: Jul 14 - Married Mary Eleanor Powlesland
1980: Feb 20 - Appeared on The Dick Cavett Show
1981: Appointed Bullitt Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Washington in Seattle for the winter and spring quarters
1982: Invited to White House as part of celebration of Roosevelt Centennial
1984: Awarded Claude Pepper Medal for contributions to social democracy
Of America East and West: Selected Writings of Paul Horgan, edited by HSC
1984: Son, Henry Steele Commager Jr., Classics Professor at Columbia University, died at age 51
1985: Special Citation from Actor's Fund of America at Night of 100 Stars II
Honored as one of Pittsburgh's favorite sons, at Celebrate Pittsburgh: the Liveable 1
Keynote speaker for Burlington Northern Executive Management Conference in Palm Springs
1987: Advisor to PBS Childhood which aired in 1988
Awarded Jefferson Medal from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education

1992 With Queen of Denmark
& U.S. President Bush

1988: Appeared on Bill Moyer's World of Ideas television series (WNET)
1990: May 2 - Received the Society of American Historians, Bruce Catton Prize for Lifetime Achievement
1991: Henry Steele Commager Professorship endowed at Amherst College
1992: Commager on Tocqueville
Invited to White House for dinner honoring the Queen of Denmark
1994-96: Some 25,000 volumes donated to the libraries of Peterhouse, Cambridge and Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, Massachusetts
1998: Mar 2 - Died at home, Amherst, Massachusetts