Gene Adam Brucker (October 15, 1924 – July 9, 2017) was an 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 species; as well as the ...

and the Shepard Professor of History,

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Brucker was born and grew up in his family farm in Cropsey, Illinois. He studied at attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana where he pursued a BA. At Champaign-Urbana, he was influenced by Raymond Stears, a Professor of modern European history. In 1943, Brucker was interrupted by World War II in which he served in the Army Corps of Engineers in France. He later studied at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and received his Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1954. He was immediately appointed to the faculty at Berkeley. He received several academic awards, including the

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, and the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Fellowship. In 1979, he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. Brucker has focused and written specifically on

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. His research on

Florentine history Florentine most commonly refers to: * a person or thing from: **Florence, a city in Italy **Republic of Florence or the Florentine Republic * the Florentine dialect of Italian or Tuscan language Florentines frequently refers to: * Masters of Fl ...

has pursued new insights into the period. Among his works include "Renaissance Florence" (1983), "Florence: the Golden Age" (1998), and "Living on the Edge in Leonardo's Florence: Selected Essays."

References

1924 births 2017 deaths Historians of Italy Historians of the Renaissance Historians from Illinois People from McLean County, Illinois University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Princeton University alumni Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Alumni of the University of Oxford American expatriates in England Historians from California Corresponding fellows of the British Academy {{US-historian-stub