The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917- )

Historian and political activist, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. was born in Ohio and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University, and Cambridge University. During World War II, Schlesinger worked for the Office of War Information and then for the Office of Strategic Services. At the end of the war, Schlesinger accepted a position on Harvard University's history faculty following the publication of his Age of Jackson, for which he won his first Pulitzer Prize. Remaining at Harvard for the next fifteen years, Schlesinger taught classes, wrote a three-volume history of the New Deal, and became active in Democratic politics. As one of the co-founders of Americans for Democratic Action, Schlesinger identified himself with anti-communist Cold War-era liberals such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson. Although he shared their early skepticism for John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, Schlesinger eventually became an enthusiastic supporter of JFK and became the new president's special assistant for Latin America in 1961. He remained in this position until 1964 when he left the White House to return to academia, this time as a professor at the City University of New York. Schlesinger won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1966, this time for A Thousand Days, his study of Kennedy's presidency, and has continued to write books on American politics and presidential history. In 1994 Schlesinger retired from the City University of New York with emeritus status, and continues to reside in New York City.

Source: The International Who's Who 1979-1980, 43rd ed. (London: Europa Publications Limited, 1979), p. 1114.

Published by the Model Editions Partnership

Recommended citation: Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and the Election of 1960: A Project of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, John Sears, Christopher Alhambra, Mary Jo Binker, Christopher Brick, John S. Emrich, Eugenia Gusev, Kristen E. Gwinn, and Bryan D. Peery (Columbia, S.C.: Model Editions Partnership, 2003). Electronic version based on unpublished letters. .

For more information, visit The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers home page at https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/.

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