Edmund Morgan, RIP

Edmund Morgan, the seminal historian of colonial America, has died at the age of 97. One of the five most important historians of the period in American history, Morgan’s books helped shape the field in the second half of the twentieth century. Among his most important books are American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (which I used as the basis for my This Day in Labor History post on Bacon’s Rebellion), Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea, and Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America. His last book was probably his most popular, an excellent biography of Benjamin Franklin.

….Although I don’t have a link, I understand from colonial historian friends commenting on Morgan’s death that his father was a radical lawyer who was on Sacco and Vanzetti’s defense team.

……Claire Potter has a really good piece on Morgan and the writing of history.