Rawley, James A. 1916–2005
Rawley, James A. 1916–2005
OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born November 9, 1916, in Terre Haute, IN; died after a stroke, November 29, 2005, in Lincoln, NE. Historian, educator, and author. A longtime professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Rawley was an historian who was considered an authority on race relations, slavery, and the life of Abraham Lincoln. Earning his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1938 and 1939, respectively, he was a history instructor at New York University during the late 1940s. He completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1949 and went on to teach at Hunter College. From 1953 to 1964, Rawley was on the faculty of Sweet Briar College. Here he chaired the history department from 1953 to 1957, as well as the division of social studies from 1961 to 1964. In 1966, Rawley moved to the University of Nebraska's Lincoln campus. He remained there for the rest of his academic career, chairing the department from 1976 until 1986, when he retired as regent's professor emeritus of history. As an historian, Rawley was respected for his research and writings on Lincoln, the U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction, slavery, race relations, and the Gilded Age. He published a number of works on history, including Lincoln and Civil War Politics (1969), The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History (1981), Abraham Lincoln and a Nation Worth Fighting For (1996), and London: Metropolis of the Slave Trade (2003). At the time of his death, he had just completed another book about Lincoln, which the University of Nebraska's history department planned to publish posthumously. Rawley was also known for his active association in the American Historical Association, where he established the Prize in Atlantic History and the James A. Rawley Prize for the best book on race relations.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2005, p. B9.
ONLINE
Daily Nebraskan Online, http://www.dailynebraskan.com/ (December 2, 2005).
Perspectives Online, http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/ (December 5, 2005).