Charles McLean Andrews

Charles McLean Andrews (1863–1943) was an American historian whose studies of British colonial administration helped establish colonial America as a distinct field of historical research.

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British America: The territories and societies under British rule in the Americas before independence. Andrews treated the colonies as parts of a connected British imperial system.
Herbert L. Osgood: An American historian known for studies of English colonial government and institutions. Like Andrews, Osgood explained colonial society through its institutional ties to England.
The Colonial Period of American History: A multivolume history by Charles McLean Andrews examining British North America through its imperial and colonial institutions. This major work presents Andrews’s account of colonial development in its fullest form.
Imperial school of American history: An approach to colonial American history that interprets the colonies within the structures and policies of the British Empire. Andrews became its leading exemplar through his emphasis on imperial administration.
Thirteen Colonies: The British mainland colonies in North America that became the first United States. Their institutions and development formed the central subject of Andrews’s colonial histories.
George Louis Beer: An American historian of the British Empire and its North American colonies. Beer and Andrews helped make imperial administration a major subject of colonial history.
American Historical Association: A professional organization founded in 1884 to advance historical study and scholarship in the United States. Andrews’s leadership in the association reflected his role in shaping professional historical practice.
Atlantic history: An approach to history that studies connections among societies bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Later transnational perspectives extend the interconnected imperial frame Andrews helped establish.
Colonial administration: The systems through which imperial governments governed and supervised overseas colonies. Andrews made imperial governance a central explanation of colonial development.
Frederick Jackson Turner: An American historian whose frontier thesis made westward expansion central to interpreting United States history. Turner’s national and frontier-centered account differed from Andrews’s emphasis on imperial institutions.