Bertram Wyatt-Brown
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Bertram Wyatt-Brown (March 19, 1932 – November 5, 2012) was a noted
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 species; as well as the ...
of the
Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
. He was the Richard J. Milbauer Professor Emeritus at the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
, where he taught from 1983 to 2004; he also taught at
Case Western University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case Western Reserve Uni ...
for nearly two decades. He studied the role of honor in southern society, in all classes, and wrote a family study of the Percy Family, including twentieth-century authors William Alexander Percy and Walker Percy.


Early life and education

Born in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...
, Wyatt-Brown was the son of Laura H. and Hunter Wyatt-Brown, an Episcopal priest who became a bishop. Wyatt-Brown was prepared at historic Saint James School in Maryland, then matriculated at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, earning his B.A. in 1953. He joined the Armed Services and served from 1953 to 1955, becoming a lieutenant junior grade in the Naval Reserve. After his military service, he received a second B.A. degree from King's College at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
in 1957. Wyatt-Brown earned his Ph.D. in history at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
in 1963, having worked under the supervision of C. Vann Woodward, the noted historian of the South.


Career

Wyatt-Brown was the Richard J. Milbauer Professor ''Emeritus'' at the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
, where he taught from 1983 to 2004, and Visiting Scholar,
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
. He previously taught at
Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...
,
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...
, and
Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...
(1966-1983), with special appointments to
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
,
University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approxim ...
, and
the College of William and Mary ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...
. During his career, Wyatt-Brown wrote ten books, and more than 90 articles, forewords, and essays, and nearly 150 book reviews and essay reviews. He served on the Editorial Advisory Board for ''Ohio History,'' the scholarly journal of the Ohio Historical Society, 1978-1986; and was series editor of the Louisiana State Press' ''Southern Biography Series''. He is a past president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (1994), the St. George Tucker Society (1998–99), and the Southern Historical Association (2000–01). At the time of his death, he was writing ''Honor and America's Wars: From the Revolution to Iraq.'' In 1983 Wyatt-Brown was a history finalist for the American Book Award and the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
for his best-known work, ''Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South'' (1982), described as a study of the "meaning and expression of the ancient code of honor as whites -- both slaveholders and non-slaveholders -- applied it to their lives."


Personal life and death

In 1962 he married Anne Jewett Marbury, whom he met at Johns Hopkins. They have two daughters, Laura and Natalie.Alan Jalowitz, "Bertram Wyatt-Brown"
, Pennsylvania State University, Spring 2006, accessed 5 September 2011
Wyatt-Brown died on November 5, 2012.


Works

* '' Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery'', Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1969. * ''The American People in the Antebellum South'', (editor) West Haven, CT: Pendulum Press, 1973. * '' Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South,'' New York: Oxford U Press, 1982. * ''Yankee Saints and Southern Sinners,'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U Press, 1985. * ''Honor and Violence in the Old South,'' New York: Oxford U Press, 1986. An abridged version of the author's ''Southern Honor''. * '' The House of Percy: Honor, Melancholy, and Imagination in a Southern Family,'' New York: Oxford U Press, 1994. * ''The Literary Percys: Family History, Gender, and the Southern Imagination,'' Athens: U of Georgia Press, 1994. * ''The Shaping of Southern Culture: Honor, Grace, and War, 1760s-1880s,'' Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 2001. * ''Hearts of Darkness: Wellsprings of a Southern Literary Tradition,'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U Press, 2003. * ''Virginia's Civil War,'' (editor with Peter Wallenstein) Charlottesville: U of Virginia Press, 2004. * ''A Warring Nation: Honor, Race, and Humiliation in America and Abroad,'' Charlottesville: U of Virginia Press, 2014.


References

Notes Further reading * . Burton, Vernon Orville. "Bertram Wyatt-Brown: An Honorable Man and a Man of Grace." ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' (2015, 99#3 pp 213–21
online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt-Brown 2012 deaths 1932 births Saint James School (Maryland) alumni Sewanee: The University of the South alumni Alumni of King's College, Cambridge University of Florida faculty 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of the Southern United States History of the Thirteen Colonies Historians of the United States Writers from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Historians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male writers