William H. McNeill (historian)
| William H. McNeill | |
|---|---|
Holding first copies of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History on his 87th birthday
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| Born |
October 31, 1917 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Died | July 8, 2016 (aged 98) Torrington, Connecticut, United States |
| Occupation | Professor, Historian, Writer |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Darbishire (married 1946–2006) |
| Children | J. R. McNeill, Andrew, Ruth, Deborah |
| Awards |
National Book Award National Humanities Medal |
| Academic background | |
| Education | University of Chicago |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Thesis title | "The Influence of the Potato on Irish History" |
| Thesis year | 1947 |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | World historian |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
| Notable works | The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community |
William Hardy McNeill (October 31, 1917 – July 8, 2016) was a Canadian-American world historian and author, particularly noted for his writings on Western civilization. He was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago where he had taught since 1947. He was also the father of historian J. R. McNeill with whom he co-authored The Human Web: A Bird's-eye View of World History.
William McNeill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the son of theologian and educator John T. McNeill. He was educated at the University of Chicago, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 1938 and Master of Arts (M.A.) in 1939. In 1941, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in World War II in the European theater. After the war, he obtained his PhD at Cornell University, in 1947.
In 1947, McNeill began teaching at the University of Chicago, which became his home throughout his professional career.
McNeill's most popular work, completed early in his career, is The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963). The book explored world history in terms of the effect of different old world civilizations on one another, and especially the dramatic effect of Western civilization on others in the past 500 years. It had a major impact on historical theory, especially its emphasis on cultural fusions, in contrast to Oswald Spengler's view of discrete, independent civilizations.
McNeill's Rise of the West won the 1964 U.S. National Book Award in History and Biography. His Plagues and Peoples (1976), was an important early contribution to the impact of disease on human history and contributed to the emergence of environmental history as a discipline.
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