Hirshson, Stanley Philip 1928-

views updated

HIRSHSON, Stanley Philip 1928-

PERSONAL: Born June 8, 1928, in Brooklyn, NY; son of Morris and Rose (Gallant) Hirshson; married Claire Shibon, November 21, 1965; children: Scott Garad. Education: Rutgers University, A.B., 1950; Columbia University, M.A., 1951, Ph.D., 1959.

ADDRESSES: Home—33-Y Garden Terrace, North Arlington, NJ 07031.

CAREER: Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, lecturer, 1957-59; Paterson State College, Wayne, NJ, assistant professor, 1959-62; Queens College, Flushing, NY, associate professor, beginning 1963. Military service: U.S. Army, 1953-55.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1962-63; fellow, Guggenheim 1966-67; fellow, Rockefeller Foundation, 1981-82; fellow, Andrew W. Mellon, 1993.

WRITINGS:

Farewell to the Bloody Shirt, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1962.

Grenville M. Dodge, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1967.

The Lion of the Lord; A Biography of Brigham Young, Knopf (New York, NY), 1969.

The White Tecumseh: A Biography of General WilliamT. Sherman, J. Wiley (New York, NY), 1997.

General Patton: A Soldier's Life, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Stanley Hirshson is a history professor and author whose writings center on historical topics and biographies. The White Tecumseh: A Biography of General William T. Sherman, chronicles the life of this civil war general, most well-known as the man who burned Atlanta. Hirshson's book draws on testimonies by men who served under Sherman, historical documents, and personal correspondence. He creates a portrait of a man who was driven in his career, but haunted by a fear of insanity, which ran in his family. A Publishers Weekly critic called the biography "as psychologically penetrating as it is painstakingly researched," but Brooks Donohue Simpson of History: A Review of Books noted that in light of a few other recently published books on this man, "Hirshson fails to offer anything that is new or valuable." Gilbert Taylor of Booklist explained that Hirshson's main objective was to tell readers what Sherman accomplished, not why he did things as he did, which was the case with previous biographies. Taylor called this book a "carefully researched, closely written work."

General Patton: A Soldier's Life was described as an "exhaustively researched and well-written biography [that] presents a balanced view of Patton's life from every angle," by a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Hirshson not only examines Patton's strategies and tactics in war, he provides interesting analyses of the troublesome relationship between the general and Allied generals in World War II, and also delves into important facts about his extended family, which help round out this portrait of Patton. A Kirkus Reviews writer commented that Hirshson does an admirable job "capturing George S. Patton's contradictions and the decidedly unpleasant aspects of his character," and he also "treats Patton's very real accomplishments on the battlefield with great respect."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, July, 1997, p. 113.

Booklist, May 15, 1997, Gilbert Taylor, review of White Tecumsah: A Biography of General William T. Sherman, p. 1559; June 1, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of General Patton: A Soldier's Life, p. 1672.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 1998, p. 96.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2002, p. 637.

Library Journal, June 15, 2002, Ed Goedeken, review of General Patton: A Soldier's Life, p. 75.

Publishers Weekly, April 14, 1997, p. 63; May 20, 2002, review of General Patton: A Soldier's Life, p. 54.

U.S. News and World Report, August 12, 2002, p. 38.