Rowland Tappan Berthoff (September 20, 1921 – March 25, 2001) 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 ...

, working in the fields of immigration and social life in the USA. He is best known for his 1971 book ''An Unsettled People: Order and Disorder in American Life''. He was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

, attended

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, and did graduate work 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 ...

where he received a doctorate in 1952, as a student of Oscar Handlin. Berthoff was an Assistant Professor of History at

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 ...

from 1953, and then a professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis, from 1962. He was made chairman of Washington University's history department and named William Elliott Smith Professor of History in 1971. He promoted

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

and ethnic history. His 1960 article on "The American Social Order: A Conservative Hypothesis" called for a conservative interpretation of American history.

Publications

* ''Republic of the dispossessed: The exceptional old-European consensus in America'' (1997
online
His last book collects eight of his scholarly articles on the intellectual history of American politics. He identified an American consensus on personal liberty and communal equality, and traces their origins to immigrants who lacked those rights in Europe. * ''An Unsettled People: Order and Disorder in American Life'' (1971
online
This is Berthoff's best-known book, exploring the themes of social order and disorder throughout American history, with attention to how these forces shaped the nation's development. * ''British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790–1950'' (1953
online
This revised PhD dissertation examines the experiences and contributions of British immigrants to the industrialization of America, providing a detailed analysis of their adaptation and influence. * "The American Social Order: A Conservative Hypothesis" (1960). This influential article in the ''American Historical Review,'' called for a conservative interpretation of American history and contributed significantly to debates in social history. See David Konig, "Rowland Berthoff,
online
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Publications

References

Further reading