David Bushnell (historian)

David Bushnell (born May 14, 1923 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † September 3, 2010 in Gainesville , Florida ) was an American historian , university professor and one of the leading experts on the history of Colombia and South America .

biography

While attending Elementary School , he wrote his first book on Latin America , aptly titled A Beginner's Outline of Latin American Geography . After attending school, he studied history at Harvard University and graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then worked in the Latin America Department in the Office of Strategic Services and from 1944 to 1946 in the United States Department of State . Between 1949 and 1956 he was a lecturer in Latin American history at the University of Delaware , during which time he earned his Philosophiae Doctor ( Ph.D. ) from Harvard University in 1951 .

After completing his teaching activities at the University of Delaware, he worked from 1956 to 1963 in the office of the historian of the US Air Force in New Mexico and in Washington, DC During this time he was also a member of the NASA Historical Advisory Program and was also in charge of the official history of NASA. As a historian for the US Air Force, he was also the co-author of Space Biology , an overview of flight altitudes - and other Air Force experiments prior to manned space flights .

In 1963 he accepted a position as professor of history at the University of Florida and taught there until his retirement in 1991. At the same time, he was editor-in-chief of the Hispanic American Historical Review , the leading journal for Latin American history, between 1986 and 1991 .

During his decades of teaching, he wrote seven specialist books on the history of Argentina , Colombia and Latin America, most of which have been translated into Spanish . He was also the editor of several other books and the author of articles. His last essay, Philatelic Feminism: The Portrayal of Women on Stamps of Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, and the United States , completed shortly before his death, combined his historical interests with his interest in philately .

David Bushnell was not only visiting professor at National War College and visiting fellow at Oxford University , but also received numerous other awards and honors.

For his work on Francisco de Paula Santander , the first vice-president and second president of Greater Colombia , as well as other work on the history of Colombia, he received the Francisco Santander Medal of the Santander Department in 1984 . In 1995 he was awarded the Order of San Carlos by the Colombian government for his numerous publications on the history of Colombia . At the time of his death, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia intended to award him an honorary doctorate , which will now be awarded posthumously .

Web links

• THE GAINESVILLE SUN: DAVID BUSHNELL (September 10, 2010)