Sewall Cushing Strout (April 19, 1923 – November 21, 2013) was an American

intellectual historian Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual hist ...

. He was Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Strout was born in

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

, and attended

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

between 1941 and 1947. During this time he served in the U.S. Army in Europe in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He went on to gain an MA and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Strout taught at Williams College,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

before moving to Cornell in 1962. At Cornell he held the Ernest I. White Chair of American Studies and Humane Letters from 1975 until his retirement in 1989. Strout and his wife, Jean Philbrick, were married for 65 years and had three sons. Strout died in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, in November 2013, aged 90.

Works

*''The Pragmatic Revolt in American History: Carl Becker and Charles Beard'' (1959) *''The American Image of the Old World'' (1963) *''Hawthorne in England: Selections from "Our Old Home" and "The English Note-Books"'' (1965) *''Conscience, Science & Security: The Case Of Dr. J.

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often ...

'' (1965) editor *''Spirit of American Government by J. Allen Smith'' (1965) editor *''Intellectual History in America'' (1968) editor, two volumes, ''Contemporary Essays on Puritanism, the Enlightenment & Romanticism'', and ''From Darwin to Niebuhr'' *''Divided We Stand: Reflections on the Crisis at Cornell'' (1970) editor with David I. Grossvogel *''The New Heavens and New Earth: Political Religion in America'' (1973) *''The Veracious Imagination: Essays on American History, Literature and Biography'' (1981) *''Making American Tradition: Visions & Revisions from Ben Franklin to Alice Walker'' (1990)

References

External links

Cushing Strout correspondence
at Williams College Archives & Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Strout, Cushing 1923 births 2013 deaths Writers from Portland, Maine Williams College alumni Harvard University alumni 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Cornell University faculty American male non-fiction writers