Henry Steele Commager

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian, author, and educator known for writing about United States constitutional and intellectual history.

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Allan Nevins: An American historian and journalist who wrote extensively about United States political and economic history. Nevins was Commager’s longtime coauthor on histories of the United States.
The American Mind: A 1950 book by Henry Steele Commager tracing major currents in American intellectual history. This is Commager’s best-known account of how ideas shaped American life.
Intellectual history: The study of ideas and their development within historical contexts. Commager’s work on American thought belongs to this historical approach.
McCarthyism: A campaign of political accusations and investigations associated with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early Cold War. Commager publicly opposed restrictions and accusations that he saw as threats to civil liberties.
Richard Hofstadter: An American historian known for studies of political traditions, reform movements, and social conflict. Hofstadter shared Commager’s concern with American political ideas but offered distinct interpretations.
The Growth of the American Republic: A two-volume history of the United States written by Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager. Its broad narrative brought Commager’s historical synthesis to generations of students.
Constitutional history: The study of how constitutions are created, interpreted, and changed over time. This field frames Commager’s accounts of constitutional principles and institutions.
United States Constitution Bicentennial: The 1987 commemoration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the United States Constitution’s signing. Commager contributed to public discussion of constitutional history during the bicentennial era.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.: An American historian and public intellectual who wrote about politics, reform, and the presidency. Schlesinger belonged to the generation of public-facing historians alongside Commager.
The Empire of Reason: A 1977 book by Henry Steele Commager about the intellectual origins of the American Revolution. It applies his interest in ideas to the political thought behind independence.