Donald M. Schurman

Donald Mackenzie Schurman (born September 2, 1924 in Sydney , Nova Scotia , † June 16, 2013 in Kingston , Ontario ) was a Canadian historian and university professor . The focus of his work was on the field of military and naval history of the Victorian era . Schurman was a professor at Queen's University and taught at the Royal Military College of Canada . In a 1997 commemorative publication, Schurman is recognized as "the founder of serious naval historiography in Canada".

Live and act

Schurman was born the son of a civil servant. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and reached the rank of flying officer there in 1945 . After his discharge from military service, he took a degree at Acadia University , which he graduated in 1949 as a Bachelor of Arts . He then continued his studies at Sydney Sussex College, University of Cambridge . There he obtained in 1955 with the theses of the imperial defense 1868-1887 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy .

Schurman's research focus was initially on the history of the British Empire, but soon focused on naval history. In his 1965 book The Education of a Navy, The Development of British Naval Strategic Thought, 1867–1914 , he looked at the development of strategic thinking within the Royal Navy and opened up a new approach to the subject of research by sharing British imperial policy and strategy the naval theorists and their personalities. He continued this approach with a biography of Julian Corbett , one of the most important British naval strategists. Schurman's approach greatly influenced naval history in Canada, as did a new generation of naval historians in the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 1972, Schurman devoted himself together with John Matthews, Professor of English at Queens University, in a sabbatical to research the correspondence of Benjamin Disraeli . After a large number of previously unknown letters from Disraeli had been found, the Disraeli Project was founded in 1975 . Schurman and Matthews edited two volumes of Disraeli's correspondence with John Alexander Wilson Gunn , who was then Head of Political Science Research at Queen's University. After the funds were used up, the project was suspended for the time being, but will be continued sporadically on the basis of research by Matthews and Schurman.

Publications

• Catalog of the Corbett papers , compiled by Brian Tunstall with the assistance of Peter M. Stanford and DM Schurman, (1958)
• The education of a navy: the development of British naval strategic thought, 1867-1914 , (1965)
• Julian S. Corbett, 1854–1922: historian of British maritime policy from Drake to Jellicoe , (1981)
• Benjamin Disraeli Letters, Volume One: 1815–1834 , edited by JAW Gunn, John Matthews, Donald M. Schurman, and MG Wiebe (1982)
• Benjamin Disraeli Letters, Volume Two: 1835–1837 , edited by JAW Gunn, John Matthews, Donald M. Schurman and MG Wiebe (1982)
• A bishop and his people: John Travers Lewis and the Anglican Diocese of Ontario, 1862-1902 , (1991)
• Imperial defense, 1868–1887 , edited by John Beeler, (2000)

Cooperation

• AMJ Hyatt (Editor): From Dreadnought to Polaris (1973)
• Historians and Britain's Imperial Strategic Stance in 1914 in John E. Flint, Glyndwr Williams (Editor): Perspectives of Empire: Essays Presented to Gerald S. Graham , (1973)
• Gerald Tulchinsky (Editor): To Preserve and Defend (1976)
• Gerald Jordan (Editor): Warfare in the Twentieth Century . (1977)
• Julian Corbett's Influence on the Royal Navy's Perception of its Maritime Function in James Goldrick, John Hattendorf (Editor): Mahan is Not Enough: The Proceedings of a Conference on the Works of Sir Julian Corbett and Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond (1993)
• Introduction by John Hattendorf and DM Schurman in Julian S. Corbett: Maritime Operations in the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–05 . (1994)
• Imperial Naval Defense: The and Now in K. Neilson, EJ Errington (Editor): Navies and Global Defense (1995)

Festschrift

• Greg Kennedy, Keith Neilson (Editor): Far-flung lines: essays in imperial defense in honor of Donald Mackenzie Schurman , (1997)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary and detailed vita
2. ^ Greg Kennedy, Keith Neilson (editors): Far-flung lines: essays in imperial defense in honor of Donald Mackenzie Schurman , 1997
3. ↑ the book is also titled Far-flung lines: studies in imperial defense in honor of Donald Mackenzie Schurman published