Samuel Eliot Morison (1887–1976)
Author of The Oxford History of the American People
About the Author
Samuel Eliot Morison was born in Boston in 1887. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912 and began teaching history there in 1915, becoming full professor in 1925 and Jonathan Trumbull professor of American history in 1941. He served as the university's official historian and wrote a show more three-volume history of the institution, the Tercentennial History of Harvard College and University, which was completed in 1936. Between 1922 and 1925 he was Harmsworth professor of American history at Oxford. He also was an accomplished sailor who retired from the navy in 1951 as a rear admiral. In preparing for his Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1941) and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1952) he took himself out of the study and onto the high seas, where he traced the voyages of his subjects and "lived" their stories insofar as possible. When it came time for the U.S. Navy to select an author to write a history of its operations in World War II, Morison was the natural choice for the task. In 1942, Morison was commissioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to write a history of U.S. naval operations in World War II and given the rank of lieutenant commander. The 15 volumes of his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II appeared between 1947 and 1962. Although he retired from Harvard in 1955, Morison continued his research and writing. A product of the Brahmin tradition, Morison wrote about Bostonians and other New Englanders and about life in early Massachusetts. He was an "American historian" in the fullest sense of the term. He also had a keen appreciation for the larger history of the nation and world, provincial is the last word one would use to describe Morison's writing. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Samuel Eliot Morison (1887-1976)
"Navy file photo of Rear Adm. Samuel Eliot Morison, USNR, the eminent naval and maritime historian and Pulitzer prize winning author."
Series
Works by Samuel Eliot Morison
The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War (1963) 591 copies
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II: Supplement and General Index (1962) 180 copies
Journals and other documents on the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus (1993) — Editor — 149 copies
Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revolution, 1764-1788: and the Formation of the Federal Constitution (1923) — Editor — 118 copies
"Old Bruin": Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1794-1858; the American naval officer who helped found Liberia (1967) 78 copies
THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF AMERICA: The Northern Voyages, A.D. 500-1600, & The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616 (1971) 43 copies
Those misunderstood Puritans 4 copies
The Development of Harvard university since the inauguration of President Eliot, 1869-1929 (2013) 4 copies
Les grandes batailles navales du Pacifique 1941-1945 Tome 1 (Pearl Harbor - La Mer de Java - La Mer de Corail - Midway) (1951) 2 copies
Storia degli Stati Uniti d'America 2 copies
The Autogiography of Mark Twain/Christopher Columbus, Mariner (Reader's Digest Great Biographies in Large Type) (1994) 2 copies
Freedom in contemporary society 2 copies
William Hickling Prescott, 1796-1859 2 copies
The Puritan pronaos; studies in the intellectual life of New England in the seventeenth century (1936) 2 copies
Introduction To Whaler Out Of New Bedford: A Film Based On The Purrington-Russell Panorama Of A Whaling Voyage Round… (1962) 2 copies
The Proprietors of Peterborough New Hampshire With some Considerations on the Origin of the Name 1 copy
The History of Harvard 1 copy
A Woman's Life 1 copy
American Neptune 1 copy
Les grandes batailles navales du Pacifique : 1941-1945. 2. Les Batailles autour de Guadal-canal (1952) 1 copy
"The Young Man Washington, An Address delivered at Sander's Theatre, Cambridge, February 22, 1932" (1932) 1 copy
Faith of an Historian 1 copy
HISTORY OF US NAVY WW II 1 copy
Associated Works
The Greatest Sailing Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Seven Unforgettable Stories (2002) — Contributor — 75 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Morison, Samuel Eliot
- Birthdate
- 1887-07-09
- Date of death
- 1976-05-15
- Burial location
- Northeast Harbor, Maine, USA (ashes buried)
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Place of death
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Cause of death
- stroke
- Places of residence
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Education
- Harvard University (BA | MA | 1908 | Ph.D | History | 1912)
École Libre des Sciences Politiques - Occupations
- historian
professor
sailor - Relationships
- Beck, Emily Morison (daughter)
Santayana, George (teacher) - Organizations
- U.S. Navy
Harvard University
American Historical Association - Awards and honors
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964)
Francis Parkman Prize for Special Achievement (1970)
Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement (1961)
Emerson-Thoreau Medal (1961)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (1963)
Pulitzer Prize (1943, 1960) (show all 11)
Bancroft Prize (1949, 1972)
Balzan Prize (1962)
Officer, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1961)
Loubat Prize (1938)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1962)
Members
Reviews
Accidently started to read, and couldn't put down. Near contemporary narrative history. Started to collect the set through a book club in high school some 30+ years ago, reunited when mom cleaned out a storage unit.
Starts with an 80-page prelude to the war, covers the opening attacks, Coral Sea, and through the Doolittle raid.
Casual racism throughout.
Starts with an 80-page prelude to the war, covers the opening attacks, Coral Sea, and through the Doolittle raid.
Casual racism throughout.
The result was a normal historical work, not a prescribed official history. Limitations of the History of U.S. Naval Operations are mostly due to its shortened period of publication. Some material, especially related to codebreaking, was still classified, and later in-depth research into particular occurrences in the war did clarify points that had been passed over rather lightly. Some rewriting was incorporated in the later printings of this series. This History of U.S. Naval Operations also intentionally avoided a certain amount of analysis, for instance deferring to other works for the causes of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. The intended audience for the work, to quote from the preface, was "the general reader rather than the professional sailor."
MISSING: #2. Operations in North African Waters: October 1942 – June 1943
#4. Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions: May 1942 – August 1942
#8. New Guinea and the Marianas: March 1944 – August 1944… (more)
MISSING: #2. Operations in North African Waters: October 1942 – June 1943
#4. Coral Sea, Midway, and Submarine Actions: May 1942 – August 1942
#8. New Guinea and the Marianas: March 1944 – August 1944… (more)
Lists
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 120
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 9,537
- Popularity
- #2,522
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 80
- ISBNs
- 256
- Languages
- 10
- Favorited
- 14
Especially appreciated the submarine action reports, need to get to Silent Victory.