The Society of American Historians was founded in 1939 by Allan Nevins and several other authors to encourage literary distinction in the writing of history and biography. Its membership is limited to 250 elected fellows. David McCullough was the thirteenth president of the Society, succeeded in May 1998 by Kenneth T. Jackson.

Contents

FOREWORD BY DAVID McCULLOUGH

TIMELINE

Introduction: Historians' Forgotten Heroes

Susan Ware

John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed)

William E. Leuchtenburg

Henry Knox's Wilderness Epic

Tom Wicker

Mary Dyer: Religious Martyr

Patricia U. Bonomi

Robert Basset: A Drumbeat for Liberty

William S. McFeely

Thomas Peters: Millwright and Deliverer

Gary B. Nash

James A. Bayard: Savior of the Constitution

James M. Banner, Jr.

John Quincy Adams: The Failed President Whose Real Triumphs Should Be Known

Alfred Kazin

Nicholas Trist: The Disobedient Diplomat

Thomas Fleming

George Drouillard: Mountain Man

Robert M. Utley

Susie King Taylor: A Black Woman's Civil War

Catherine Clinton

Myra Colby Bradwell: Champion of Women's Legal Rights

Jean Harvey Baker

Victoria Woodhull: Free Love in the Feminine, First-Person Singular

Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz

Emmeline B. Wells: Mormon Feminist and Journalist

Leonard J. Arrington

The Amazing Dummy

Stephen Jay Gould

John McLuckie: Burgess of Homestead

David Brody

Florence Kelley Campaigns against Sweatshops in the 1890s

Kathryn Kish Sklar

George Dewey: Naval Hero and Political Disaster

Justin Kaplan

Local Hero: J. C. M. Hanson and the Politics of Library Classification

Neil Harris

William Chandler Bagley: Dr. Know of American Education

Diane Ravitch

O. Delight Smith: A Labor Organizer's Odyssey

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall

"Brave about Words": Margaret Anderson and the Ulysses Trial

Christine Stansell

Ned Cobb: He Stood His Ground

Jacqueline Jones

Carlo Tresca: "Every Inch a Fighter"

John Patrick Diggins

Alice Paul: Friend and Foe of the Equal Rights Amendment
Joan Hoff

Samuel Seabury: The Man Who Rode the Tiger

Herbert Mitgang

Edward Prichard: Forgotten New Dealer

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Caroline F. Ware: Crusader for Social Justice

Thomas Dublin

Lew Ayres: Conscience in Hollywood

Bernard A. Weisberger

The Trials of Miriam Van Waters

Estelle B. Freedman

Pauli Murray and the Killing of Jane Crow

Rosalind Rosenberg

Sam Phillips: Southern Visionary

Joel Williamson

Hazel Brannon Smith: White Martyr for Civil Rights

Kathleen Brady

Gertrude Ederle: "America's Best Girl"

Susan Ware

"Manila John" of Guadalcanal: Hero of the Pacific War

Kenneth T. Jackson

Frederick Funston: A Song of Rage

Mark C. Carnes

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INDEX

The pages of the past are full of characters who remind us that history depends upon the great deeds of men and women, whether famous or humble. Where would America be without George Washington, or Daniel Boone, or Sojourner Truth, or Babe Ruth? Where would we be without so many characters who are less well remembered today?
Historians and biographers regularly come across stories of little-known or forgotten heroes, and this book provides a chance to rescue some of the best of them. In Forgotten Heroes, thirty-five of the country's leading historians recount their favorite stories of underappreciated Americans. From Stephen Jay Gould on deaf baseball player Dummy Hoy; to William Leuchtenburg on the truth behind the legendary Johnny Appleseed; to Christine Stansell on Margaret Anderson, who published James Joyce's Ulysses; these portraits can be read equally for delight, instruction, and inspiration
Taken together, however, the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Every culture needs heroes who lead by example and uplift us all in the process. Too often lately, historians have been more intent on picking apart the reputations of previously revered Americans. At times it has seemed as if the academy were on the attack against much of its own culture, denying its past greatness while making heroes only of its dissidents and doubters. Yet as this collection vividly demonstrates, heroes come in many shapes and sizes, and we all gain when we remember and celebrate them.
Forgotten Heroes includes nearly as many women as men, and nearly as many people from before 1900 as after. It expands the traditional definition of hero to encompass not only military figures and politicians who took risks for great causes, but also educators, religious leaders, reformers, labor leaders, publishers, athletes, and even a man who started a record company. Many of them were heroes of conscience -- men and women who insisted on doing the right thing, no matter how unpopular or risky, commanding respect even from those who disagreed. Some were famous in their day and have since been forgotten, or remembered only in caricature. Others were little-known even when alive -- yet they all deserve to be remembered today, especially at the gifted hands of the authors of this book.