John C. Greene (historian) explained

Discipline:Historian of science
Sub Discipline:History of evolutionary thought
American history
Workplaces:University of Chicago
University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Kansas
University of Connecticut
Birth Date:5 March 1917
Birth Place:Indianapolis, Indiana
Death Place:Pacific Grove, California
Known For:The Death of Adam; Debating Darwin; American Science in the Age of Jefferson

John Colton Greene (March 5, 1917, Indianapolis, Indiana – November 12, 2008, Pacific Grove, California)[1] was an American historian of science. He is known for his influential study of the history of evolutionary thought, The Death of Adam, for academic controversies with Neo-Darwinians, particularly Ernst Mayr, collected in Debating Darwin, and for his studies of early American science, particularly American Science in the Age of Jefferson.

Biography

His father was a professor at Butler College, Indiana at his birth, then moved to University of South Dakota in 1919.[2] John C. Greene grew up in Vermillion, South Dakota, where he graduated in 1934 from Vermillion High School. He graduated in 1938 with a B.A. from the University of South Dakota. In 1939 he graduated with an M.A. in American history from Harvard University and continued studying there for his Ph.D. until 1942, becoming one of the early Junior Fellows of the Harvard Society of Fellows in 1941,[3] when his academic career was interrupted by World War II. He was drafted into the US Army in 1942, and served from September 1942 to April 1946, travelling to five continents and attaining the rank of captain.[4] While stationed in Teheran, he, as a first lieutenant, met Ellen Wiemann (1917–1998), a Red Cross nurse from Larchmont, New York. They married in Cairo, Egypt in November 1945.

In early 1946 they returned to the United States to live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he studied at Harvard until 1948. He departed Cambridge before completing his dissertation, eventually completing the work for his Harvard Ph.D. in history in 1952.[5] The couple lived from 1948 to 1967 in various Midwestern university towns with one academic year (1962–1963) in Berkeley, California. During the years from 1948 to 1967, they raised three children, Ruth, Ned, and John David. John C. Greene taught from 1948 to 1952 as an instructor at the University of Chicago, from 1952 to 1956 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, from 1956 to 1962 at Iowa State University, from 1962 to 1963 as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and from 1963 to 1967 as a professor at the University of Kansas. In 1967 he became a professor of the University of Connecticut, where he taught from 1967 until 1987, when he retired as professor emeritus. After his wife Ellen died in 1998, he moved from Storrs, Connecticut, to California, where he died of pneumonia on November 12, 2008.

Greene wrote several monographs and numerous essays and book reviews. His work deals with "early American science, the rise and development of evolutionary ideas in Western thought, and the historical relations of science, religion, and world view."[4]

For the academic year 1966–1967, Greene was a Guggenheim Fellow.[6] He was in 1974 a visiting scholar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and in 1978 a visiting historian at the National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution. He was from 1975 to 1976 the president of the History of Science Society.[7] In 1983 he was elected a fellow of the American Antiquarian Society.[8] In 1989 a festschrift of essays was dedicated to him, History, Humanity, and Evolution edited by James Moore.[9] In 2002 he received the George Sarton Medal.[10]

Selected publications

Articles

Books

References

  1. Moore . James . James Moore (biographer) . 2012 . Eloges: John Colton Greene, 1917–2008 . Isis . 103 . 1 . 144–148 . 10.1086/664985 . 10.1086/664985.
  2. Book: Kreitzer, Stewart Edward. World views in collision: The dialogue between John Greene and Ernst Mayr (1959-2005). University of Florida. 2013. 144.
    doctoral dissertation
    .
  3. Book: Kreitzer . World views in collision: The dialogue between John Greene and Ernst Mayr (1959-2005) . University of Florida . 2013 . 165 .
    doctoral dissertation
    .
  4. Web site: John C. Greene Papers at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. Archives & Special Collections, UConn Library, University of Connecticut (uconn.edu).
  5. News: Obituary. Greene, Ellen W.. Hartford Courant. January 29, 1998.
  6. Web site: John C. Greene. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  7. Web site: Past Presidents . November 20, 2024 . History of Science Society.
  8. Web site: John C. Greene. Institute for Advanced Study. 9 December 2019 .
  9. Book: Moore, James Richard. History, Humanity and Evolution: Essays for John C. Greene . 9780521524780 . 3 October 2002 . Cambridge University Press .
  10. Web site: Sarton Medal . November 20, 2024 . History of Science Society.
  11. 10.1017/S0003598X00029586. Review of The Death of Adam by John C. Greene. 1962 . Rodden . Judith . Antiquity . 36 . 141 . 61–62 . 164004750 .
  12. Review: Darwin and the Modern World View by John C. Greene. Crowell, Sears. The American Biology Teacher. 1963. 25. 2. 140–141. 10.2307/4440271. 4440271 . p. 141
  13. 10.1086/352327. Review of The Science of Minerals in the Age of Jefferson by John C. Greene and John G. Burke . 1979 . White . George W. . Isis . 70 . 3 . 475–476 .
  14. 10.1086/353060. Review of Science, Ideology, and World View: Essays in the History of Evolutionary Ideas by John C. Greene . 1982 . Oldroyd . David . David R. Oldroyd. Isis . 73 . 3 . 443–444 . p. 444
  15. 10.1017/S0007087400026960. Review of Science, ideology, and world view: Essays in the history of evolutionary ideas by John C. Greene . 1983 . Ridley . Mark . Mark Ridley (zoologist) . The British Journal for the History of Science . 16 . 2 . 214–215 . 145570343 .
  16. Frick, George F.. 10.1086/ahr/90.4.1008. Review of American Science in the Age of Jefferson by John C. Greene. The American Historical Review . 1985 .
  17. 10.2307/1903759. 1903759 . Reingold . Nathan . Reviewed work: American Science in the Age of Jefferson by John C. Greene . The Journal of American History . 1985 . 72 . 1 . 135–136 .
  18. Web site: Debating Darwin: adventures of a scholar / John C. Greene. 1999. Library Catalogue, Wellcome Collection.
  19. News: Review of Debating Darwin: Adventures of a Scholar by John C. Greene. Durant, John. July 11, 1999. The New York Times . 28, Section 7.
  20. Smocovitis . Vassiliki Betty . 2002 . Review: The Darwin Adventure Continues (Reviewed Work: Debating Darwin: Adventures of a Scholar by John C. Greene) . Isis . 93 . 3 . 462–464 . 10.1086/374066 . 10.1086/374066.

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