Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker (February 6, 1879 – April 22, 1966) was a leading American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and Edwards Professor of American History at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. Born in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen C ...

, he received his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

, gaining a reputation for his doctoral dissertation, ''Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia'' (1910), followed by ''Virginia Under the Stuarts'' (1914), and his master work, ''The Planters of Colonial Virginia'' (1922). In 1910, Princeton President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

brought him there as a

preceptor A preceptor (from Latin, "''praecepto''") is a teacher responsible for upholding a ''precept'', meaning a certain law or tradition. Buddhist monastic orders Senior Buddhist monks can become the preceptors for newly ordained monks. In the Buddhi ...

. Wertenbaker was a member of the history department for 37 years and its chairman from 1928 to 1936. He was an effective and popular undergraduate teacher, and also carried the majority of the burden of graduate teaching for many years. He was president of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

in 1947, a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–194 ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1939–1940 and 1944–1945, and visiting professor at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

and the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. He was also a newspaper editor and an amateur architect. Grave of Thomas J

He was buried at the

University of Virginia Cemetery The University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium is a cemetery on the grounds of the University of Virginia, located at the intersection of McCormick Road and Alderman Road. In operation since 1828, during the earliest days of the university, ...

Selected works

*''Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia; Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion'' (doctoral thesis) (1910
online edition
*''Virginia Under the Stuarts, 1607–1688'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 1914
online edition
*''The Planters of Colonial Virginia'' (Princeton University Press, 1922
online edition
*''The Founding of American Civilization: The Middle Colonies'' (1938

*''Torchbearer of the Revolution: The Story of Bacon's Rebellion and Its Leader'' (1940
short review
*''The Old South: The Founding of American Civilization'' (1942
review
*''The Puritan Oligarchy: The Founding of American Civilization'' (1947) *''The Molding of the American West'' (1947) (address to the

online edition
* ''Bacon's Rebellion, 1676'' (1957
online edition
*''Give Me Liberty: The Struggle for Self-Government in Virginia'' (1958
online edition

References

External links

* *

at manybooks.net 1879 births 1966 deaths University of Virginia alumni Writers from Charlottesville, Virginia Princeton University faculty Presidents of the American Historical Association Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History Members of the American Philosophical Society Burials at the University of Virginia Cemetery Historians from Virginia {{US-historian-stub