William Archibald Dunning

William Archibald Dunning
Born(1857-05-12)12 May 1857
Plainfield, New Jersey, United States
Died25 August 1922(1922-08-25) (aged 65)
New York City, New York, United States
Occupation(s)Professor, author
Academic background
Alma materColumbia University
ThesisThe Constitution of the United States in Civil War and Reconstruction: 1860–1867
InfluencesHeinrich von Treitschke
Academic work
School or traditionDunning School
InstitutionsColumbia University
Notable studentsCharles Merriam
Influenced

William Archibald Dunning (12 May 1857 – 25 August 1922)[1] was an American historian and political scientist at Columbia University noted for his work on the Reconstruction era of the United States.[2] He founded the informal Dunning School of interpreting the Reconstruction era through his own writings and the Ph.D. dissertations of his numerous students.

Dunning has been criticized for advocating white supremacist interpretations, his "blatant use of the discipline of history for reactionary ends"[3] and for offering "scholarly legitimacy to the disenfranchisement of southern blacks and to the Jim Crow system."[4]

  1. ^ "William A. Dunning Biography". historians.org. American Historical Association. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  2. ^ Merriam, Charles E. (1926). "Masters of Social Science: William Archibald Dunning". Social Forces. 5 (1): 1–8. doi:10.2307/3004799. ISSN 0037-7732.
  3. ^ Gordon-Reed, Annette (26 October 2015). "What If Reconstruction Hadn't Failed?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  4. ^ Smith, John David; Lowery, J. Vincent, eds. (18 October 2013). The Dunning School: Historians, Race, and the Meaning of Reconstruction. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. p. xi. ISBN 978-0-8131-4225-8. Retrieved 3 August 2017.