20 Facts About Robert Cotner

Robert Crawford Cotner was an American academic, author, editor, and historian best known for his biography of Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg.

Robert Crawford Cotner was born in Cleveland on November 1,1906.

Robert Cotner's parents were Thomas Ewing Cotner and Nina Dot Crawford Cotner, a retail salesman and a real estate agent, respectively.

Robert Cotner returned to Texas and started teaching in Midland, Texas schools for the fall term of 1929.

Robert Cotner embarked on a career in higher education in 1932.

Robert Cotner returned to Harvard through a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1939 and 1940.

The history department hired more instructors to meet its growing enrollment; however, with the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7,1941, enrollment collapsed, and Robert Cotner was just one of two history professors retained.

Robert Cotner began with the Service Force of the Atlantic as a personnel specialist.

Robert Cotner secured a book contract with Houghton Mifflin Company for Readings in American History.

Robert Cotner balanced teaching with compiling his anthology until its publication in 1952.

Robert Cotner borrowed from his education at Harvard in order to change the teaching of history at the University of Texas.

Robert Cotner taught social history, handed down to him by Arthur Schlesinger, Sr, popular biography courses, and introduced urban history to the university.

Robert Cotner was a university administrator and participated in various professional organizations.

Robert Cotner was attached to the Dean's office as a graduate advisor.

Robert Cotner was president of the East Texas Historical Association and the West Texas Historical Association.

Robert Cotner was a member of the Texas State Historical Association, the Southern Science Association, and the Southwestern Social Science Association.

Robert Cotner edited the Southwestern Historical Quarterly and the West Texas Historical Yearbook.

Robert Cotner had neither passed his exams, nor had he finished his dissertation, a project he began in 1939.

Robert Cotner received the support of the Hogg family in completing his research, especially from the former Governor's daughter, Ima Hogg.

Herbert Gambrell and Ralph Wooster offered favorable reviews, while other reviewers, including Frederick Merk, claimed that Robert Cotner was too deferential to his subject.