Paul Lachlan MacKendrick (February 11, 1914 in

Taunton, Massachusetts Taunton is a city in and the county seat of Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Taunton is situated on the Taunton River, which winds its way through the city on its way to Mount Hope Bay, to the south. As of the 2020 United States ...

– February 10, 1998 in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

) was an American

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, author, and teacher.

Biography

MacKendrick was born in

, but most of his productive years had been lived in

. MacKendrick was educated at

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 ...

(1934 B.A., summa cum laude; 1937 M.A.; 1938 Ph.D.) and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

, after which he taught at

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

for some years. Future

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed For ...

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

was a student of MacKendrick's while he taught at

. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and served from 1941–45. He taught at Harvard in 1946 and then moved to

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

as Assistant Professor of Classics where he taught for six years. MacKendrick was named a Professor of Classics in 1952 and in 1975, the

Lily Ross Taylor Lily Ross Taylor (August 12, 1886 – November 18, 1969) was an American academic and author, who in 1917 became the first female Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Biography Born in Auburn, Alabama, Lily Ross Taylor developed an interest ...

Professor of Classics. In all, he taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1946 to 1984. In 1952, he worked with Herbert M. Howe on the publication of '' Classics in Translation,'' an anthology of selections by

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

writers. In 1958, two books followed: ''The Ancient World'', co-authored with Vincent M. Scramuzza and ''The Roman Mind At Work.'' He is most widely known for a series of books that utilise the discoveries of archeology to reconstruct the histories of particular cultures or civilizations. The first of these, ''The Mute Stones Speak,'' surveys the cultures of the Italian peninsula from prehistoric times, with emphasis on the Romans, to the adoption of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

as the official religion of the empire in 324 A.D. ''The Greek Stones Speak'' followed in 1962. Starting with

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

and

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and an influential amateur archaeologist. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolo ...

's excavations, the reader is told of excavations of major centers of the Hellenic world, including the story of

Michael Ventris Michael George Francis Ventris, (; 12 July 1922 – 6 September 1956) was an English architect, classics, classicist and philology, philologist who deciphered Linear B, the ancient Mycenaean Greek script. A student of languages, Ventris had ...

' decipherment of

Linear B Linear B is a syllabary, syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest Attested language, attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examp ...

. Several additional titles appeared in this series, and by 1980 it had surveyed regions and cultures of almost the entire area of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Professor MacKendrick had retired from teaching in 1984.

Honors

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 ...

, 1950–51 *

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 ...

,List of 1957 Guggenheim Fellows
1957–58 *Consultant, Greek archeology,

National Broadcasting Company The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

*Consultant, Roman archeology,

Time-Life Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and Direct marketing, direct ...

, Inc.

Awards

1984 Notable Wisconsin Authors
- Wisconsin Library Association Literary Awards Committee

Selected books

*Classics In Translation (with Herbert M. Howe), 1952 *The Ancient World (with Vincent M. Scramuzza), 1958 *''The Roman Mind At Work'', 1958 *''The Mute Stones Speak'', 1960 *''The Greek Stones Speak'', 1962 *''The Iberian Stones Speak'', 1969 *''The Athenian Aristocracy, 339-31 B.C.'', 1969 *''Romans On The Rhine'', 1970 *''Roman France'', 1972 *''The Dacian Stones Speak'', Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...

, 1975. *''The North African Stones Speak'', 1980

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackendrick, Paul 1914 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American historians Historians of antiquity University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Harvard University alumni Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford United States Navy personnel of World War II Clan Henderson People from Taunton, Massachusetts Writers from Wisconsin American male non-fiction writers Historians from Massachusetts United States Navy reservists 20th-century American male writers