Steven Edgar Ozment (February 21, 1939 – December 12, 2019) 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 ...

of early modern and modern

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, the European family, and the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

. From 1990 to 2015, he was the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History 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 ...

, and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, 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". ...

until his death on December 12, 2019. A son of Lowell Ozment and Shirley (Edgar) Ozment, he was born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Camden,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. He attended the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

on a football scholarship, and transferred to

Hendrix College Hendrix College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Approximately 1,000 students are enrolled, mostly undergraduates. While affiliated with the United Methodist Chu ...

after two years, and graduated with a BA in 1960. He obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree at Drew Theological School in 1964, and a PhD at Harvard University in 1967. His dissertation, written under the supervision of Dutch intellectual historian Heiko Oberman, concerned the thought of Johannes Tauler,

Jean Gerson Jean Charlier de Gerson (13 December 1363 – 12 July 1429) was a French scholar, educator, reformer, and poet, Chancellor of the University of Paris, a guiding light of the conciliar movement and one of the most prominent theologians at the Cou ...

and

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

. Ozment taught at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

, and at

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

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

as well as Harvard. In 1977, he was awarded a

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 ...

in the field of Renaissance history. Ozment authored ten books. His ''Age of Reform, 1250–1550'' (1980), based on his lecture notes for two survey courses at Yale, won the Schaff History Prize (1981) and was nominated for the 1981

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

. Five of his books were selections of the History Book Club and several have been translated into

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an and Asian languages. ''A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People'' came out in 2005. Ozment's study of the world of German artist

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder ( ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German ...

was published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

in June, 2013, under the title, ''The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation''. Ozment was married first to Elinor Pryor of Little Rock, with whom he had 3 of his children. He later married Andrea Foster of Norwich, NY and had 2 more children. They lived together in Newbury, MA, where Steven spent the majority of his academic life. He spent the last years of his life married to Susanna Schweizer.

Major works

*''Homo spiritualis: a comparative study of the anthropology of Johannes Tauler,

and

(1509–16) in the context of their theological thought''. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969. *ed., ''Jean Gerson: selections from A Deo exivit, Contra curiositatem studentium and De mystica theologia speculative''.

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

: E.J. Brill, 1969. *ed., ''The Reformation in

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Perspective''. Chicago, IL: Quadrangle Books, 1971. *''Mysticism and Dissent: Religious Ideology and Social Protest in the Sixteenth Century''. New Haven, CT:

, 1973. *''The Reformation in the Cities: The Appeal of

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

to Sixteenth-Century Germany and Switzerland''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975; 1977. *co-author, ''The Western Heritage''. New York, NY: MacMillan, 1979; 1983; 1986; 1990; 1994; 1997; 2000; 2003. *''The Age of Reform, 1250–1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1980; 1981. (Reprinted with a new Forward in 2020.) *ed., ''Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research''. St. Louis, MO: Center for Reformation Research, 1982. *''When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe''.

Cambridge, MA Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118, ...

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

, 1983; 1985. *co-author, ''The Heritage of World Civilizations''. New York, NY: MacMillan, 1986; 1989; 1993; 1996; 1999; 2001; 2004. *''Magdalena and Balthasar: An Intimate Portrait of Life in 16th Century Europe Revealed in the Letters of a Nuremberg Husband and Wife''. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1986; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. *ed., ''Religion and Culture in 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 ...

and Reformation''. Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1989. *ed. & trans., ''Three Behaim Boys: Growing Up in Early Modern Germany. A Chronicle of Their Lives''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990. *''Protestants: The Birth Of a Revolution''. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1993; 1994; London: HarperCollins, 1993. *''The Bürgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town''. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1996; New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1997. *''Flesh and Spirit: A Study of Private Life in Early Modern Germany''. New York, NY: Viking/Penguin, 1999; 2001. *''Ancestors: The Loving Family in Old Europe''. Cambridge, MA:

, 2001. *''A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People''. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2004; 2005; London: Granta, 2005. *''The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther, and the Making of the Reformation''. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozment, Steven E. 1939 births 2019 deaths Reformation historians Microhistorians Writers from Arkansas Writers from Mississippi Harvard University faculty Harvard University Department of History faculty People from McComb, Mississippi People from Camden, Arkansas People from Newbury, Massachusetts Stanford University Department of History faculty Yale University faculty 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians from Massachusetts Drew University alumni Hendrix College alumni Harvard University alumni American male non-fiction writers Intellectual historians