24 Facts About Allan Nevins

1.

Joseph Allan Nevins was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and John D Rockefeller, as well as his public service.

2.

Allan Nevins was a leading exponent of business history and oral history.

3.

Allan Nevins's father was of Scottish heritage and his mother German.

4.

Allan Nevins married Mary Fleming in 1916, and the couple had two daughters, Anne Elizabeth and Meredith.

5.

Allan Nevins wrote his first book, The Life of Robert Rogers and a history of the University of Illinois during his postgraduate studies in that institution.

6.

Allan Nevins then accepted positions with the New York Evening Post and The Nation and worked as a journalist in New York City for twenty years, as well as continued writing and editing history books.

7.

Allan Nevins resigned from the Nation in 1918, and the Post about a year after publishing its history The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism in 1922.

8.

In 1924 Allan Nevins resigned from the Post to become literary editor of the New York Sun and about a year later gave up that position to become an editorial writer with the New York World.

9.

In 1928, Allan Nevins joined the history faculty of Columbia University, where he remained for three decades until his mandatory retirement in 1958.

10.

In 1948 Allan Nevins created the first oral history program to operate on an institutionalized basis in the US, which continues as Columbia University's Center for Oral History.

11.

In 1954 with Frank Hill, Allan Nevins published the first of a three-volume biography of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company, Ford: The Times, the Man, and the Company.

12.

From May 6,1938, until August 18,1957, Allan Nevins hosted a 15-minute radio show Adventures in Science, which covered a wide variety of medical and scientific topics, and was broadcast as a segment of CBS' Adult Education Series various days, usually in the late afternoon.

13.

Allan Nevins headed the national Civil War Centennial Commission, edited its 15-volume Impact series and finished the final volumes of his eight-volume series on the American Civil War.

14.

Allan Nevins published Herbert H Lehman and His Era and James Truslow Adams: Historian of the American Dream.

15.

In 1966, Allan Nevins received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

16.

Allan Nevins was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Westchester County, New York.

17.

Allan Nevins wrote more than 50 books, mainly political and business history and biography focusing on the nineteenth century, in addition to his many newspaper and academic articles.

18.

Allan Nevins planned and helped to edit a pioneering 13-volume series exploring American social history, "A History of American Life".

19.

Allan Nevins used narrative not only to tell a story but to propound moral lessons.

20.

Allan Nevins preferred emphasizing practical notions about the importance of national unity, principled leadership, [classical] liberal politics, enlightened journalism, the social responsibility of business and industry, and scientific and technical progress that added to the cultural improvement of humanity.

21.

Business journalist Ferdinand Lundberg later criticized Allan Nevins for deferring to power and thereby misleading readers.

22.

In contending that Rockefeller did "nothing criminal", in light of his central role in the Ludlow Massacre, Allan Nevins seems to have equated non-prosecution with innocence.

23.

An enthusiastic supporter of then-Senator John F Kennedy, Nevins wrote the foreword to the inaugural edition of Kennedy's Profiles in Courage.

24.

Allan Nevins joined his friend, frequent co-editor, and Columbia colleague Henry Steele Commager in organizing "Professors for Kennedy", a political advocacy group in the 1960 presidential election.