Allan Nevins

Allan Nevins (1890–1971) was an American historian and biographer whose works included major studies of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and American business.

American Civil War: A war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States and the Confederacy formed by seceding Southern states. Nevins’s multi-volume history made the conflict a central subject of his scholarship.
The Ordeal of the Union: Allan Nevins’s multi-volume history of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 through the Civil War. This landmark work presents his account of the sectional crisis and Union victory.
University of Illinois: A public research university in Urbana and Champaign, Illinois. Nevins studied and taught there before moving into journalism and historical scholarship.
Columbia Oral History Research Office: A Columbia University program founded in 1948 to collect recorded interviews as historical sources. Nevins founded the office, helping establish oral history as an organized research practice.
Abraham Lincoln: The 16th president of the United States, who led the Union during the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Nevins wrote a major biography of Lincoln, tracing his rise and wartime leadership.
The Emergence of Lincoln: Allan Nevins’s two-volume study of Abraham Lincoln’s political development before his presidency. It follows Lincoln’s rise through the political conflicts that preceded the Civil War.
Columbia University: A private research university in New York City, founded in 1754. Nevins joined its faculty in 1928 and spent much of his academic career there.
Civil War historiography: The changing interpretations and methods historians have used to study the American Civil War. His extensive narrative became a major reference point for later Civil War scholarship.
American biography: A form of historical writing that reconstructs an individual’s life using evidence and interpretation. Nevins used biography to illuminate both prominent figures and broader American history.
The War for the Union: Allan Nevins’s four-volume history of the Union’s military and political effort during the Civil War. It extends his Civil War narrative from the outbreak of war to its conclusion.

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Henry Steele CommagerRelated: Nevins was Commager’s longtime coauthor on histories of the United States.