Ernst Ekman (1926 - 13 October 1981) was a specialist in

Scandinavian history The history of Scandinavia is the history of the geographical region of Scandinavia and Scandinavians, its peoples. The region is located in Northern Europe, and consists of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Iceland are at times, especial ...

at the

University of California Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on i ...

. Born in Chicago of Swedish descent, Ekman was multi-lingual, a meticulous historian, and an advocate of the benefits of a broad education in the history of Western Civilisation.

Early life and education

Ernst Ekman was born in Chicago in 1926 of Swedish descent. He was schooled in Glendale, California, after which he attended

Jonathan Edwards College Jonathan Edwards College (informally JE) is a residential college at Yale University. It is named for theologian and minister Jonathan Edwards, a 1720 graduate of Yale College. JE's residential quadrangle was the first to be completed in Yale's ...

Ernst Ekman, History: Riverside.
calisphere. Retrieved 23 December 2019. at Yale University from where he received his A.B. in 1948. He studied at Gotesborgs Hogskola in Sweden before joining the University of Minnesota from where he was awarded the degree of M.A. in Scandinavian Area Studies. He subsequently received his Ph.D. in History from UCLA in 1954. He married Iris with whom he had two sons, Anders and Jonathan.

Career

Ekman was a specialist in Scandinavian history at the University of California Riverside. His main period of interest was from the Reformation to the Thirty Years' War and he was a regular contributor to ''The Journal of Modern History'' and the yearbooks of the

American Swedish Historical Museum The American Swedish Historical Museum is the oldest Swedish-American museum in the United States. It is located in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia, on part of a historic 17th-century land grant originally provided by Q ...

in the 1960s. He was an advocate of the benefits of a broad education in the history of Western Civilisation, which he taught at Riverside, and a meticulous historian much interested in sources and historiography, contributing an article on "The Teaching of Scandinavian History in the United States" to ''Scandinavian Studies'' in 1965 in which he surveyed scholars, institutions, and the availability of sources on Scandinavia in the United States and noted that some important publications were only available at the Library of Congress or the New York Public Library. He was a regular reviewer in scholarly journals and contributed to ''

The Encyclopedia Americana ''Encyclopedia Americana'' is a general encyclopedia written in American English. It was the first general encyclopedia of any magnitude to be published in North America. With '' Collier's Encyclopedia'' and ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclo ...

'' on

Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden Gustaf VI Adolf (Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf Adolf; 11 November 1882 – 15 September 1973) was King of Sweden from 29 October 1950 until his death in 1973. He was the eldest son of Gustaf V and his wife, Victoria of Baden. Before Gustaf A ...

.''Encyclopedia Americana'', 1977, Vol. 13, p. 628.

Death

Ekman died suddenly on 13 October 1981.

Selected publications

"The Danish Royal Law of 1665"
''The Journal of Modern History'', Vol. 29, No. 2 (June 1957), pp. 102–107.
"Henrik Pontoppidan as a Critic of Modern Danish Society"
''Scandinavian Studies'', Vol. 29, No. 4 (Nov. 1957), pp. 170–183.
"A Southern California Booster Letter: Sent Home to Sweden in 1889"
'' The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly'', Vol. 43, No. 3 (September, 1961), pp. 298–302.
"Gothic Patriotism and Olof Rudbeck"
''

The Journal of Modern History ''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...

'', Vol. 34, No. 1 (March 1962), pp. 52–63.
"A Swedish View in 1826 of American Character"
''

American Quarterly ''American Quarterly'' is an academic journal and the official publication of the American Studies Association. The journal covers topics of both domestic and international concern in the United States and is considered a leading resource in th ...

'', Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1962), pp. 495–499.
"The Teaching of Scandinavian History in the United States"
''

Scandinavian Studies Scandinavian studies or ''Scandinavistics'' is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultura ...

'', Vol. 37, No. 3 (August 1965), pp. 259–270.
"Three Decades of Research on Gustavus Adolphus"
''The Journal of Modern History'', Vol. 38, No. 3 (Sep., 1966), pp. 243–255.
"Saint-Barthélemy et la Révolution française"
'' Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de la Guadeloupe'', Issue 7, 1er semestre 1967, pp. 19–37. * "A Swedish View of Chicago in the 1890s: Henning Berger", '' Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly'', Vol. 25 (1974), pp. 230–40.
"Sweden, the Slave Trade and Slavery, 1784-1847"
'' Outre-Mers. Revue d'histoire'', Année Vol. LXII (1975), No. 226-227, pp. 221–231.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekman, Ernst 1926 births 1981 deaths Writers from Chicago American people of Swedish descent University of California, Riverside faculty University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Historians of Scandinavia Historians of Sweden Yale University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni 20th-century American historians Historians from Illinois