Bertram Wyatt-Brown

Bertram Wyatt-Brown, an accomplished writer, historian, and mentor, died on November 5, 2012. He received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., following which he served in the United States Navy for two years. He received a second bachelor’s degree from King’s College in Cambridge, England, in 1957, and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1962, studying under the influential Southern historian C. Vann Woodward. Bertram Wyatt-Brown taught at several universities but spent most of his career teaching at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland and the University of Florida in Gainesville. Toward the end of his career he became a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins. He was the author of over 100 articles and essays and several books. His most influential work focused on the culture of the antebellum South, in particular his 1982 Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South, which was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in history. His unique blend of anthropology, cultural history, and storytelling grounded in extensive documentary research was a powerful combination that was new to the historical field. He was also known for his skill in mentoring students; Drew Gilpin Faust, critically acclaimed historian of the South and now president of Harvard, is counted among those influenced by his tutelage. At the time of his death he had just finished final edits on A Warring Nation: Honor, Race, and Humiliation in America’s Wars, to be published by the University of Virginia Press. He served as president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic in 1994, the St. George Tucker Society from 1998 to 1999, and the Southern Historical Association from 2000 to 2001. He was a longstanding supporter of the Historical Society and contributed regularly to its publication, Historically Speaking.