William Haller

William Haller (born May 12, 1885 in New York City , New York , † April 22, 1974 in Worcester , Massachusetts ) was an American Anglicist and historian who was particularly concerned with the emergence of Puritanism in early modern England .

William Haller studied at Amherst College in Massachusetts, which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908, and at Columbia University in New York City , where he received his Master of Arts in 1911 . There he received his Ph.D. in 1916. PhD.

He then began a scientific career and dealt primarily with the history of ideas of Puritanism. In 1966 he was described alongside Perry Miller as one of the two most important historians of the 20th century in this field. As Professor of English at Columbia University, he served on the editorial board of the Columbia Edition of the Works of John Milton . As a result, he dealt with its intellectual environment. Haller's main work was The Rise of Puritanism (1938), in which he followed the ideas of Puritan thinkers themselves in their context until the outbreak of the English Civil War . After 41 years at Barnard College at Columbia University, he retired in 1950 and became a Fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Library . 1954/55 Haller was visiting professor at Emmanuel College in Cambridge and continued to publish on literary and political ideas of the 17th century.

Throughout his life, Haller remained methodically and content-wise largely consistent with the classic history of ideas . He rejected the thesis of the Puritan researchers Samuel Rawson Gardiner and Charles Harding Firth that the Puritans' religious dissent was explained by political marginalization: For Haller, the political opposition that led to the civil war developed out of religious ideas. He hardly dealt with the institutional and organizational aspects and gave the Puritans an important place in a modern history of progress (cf. Whig history ): “They irrevocably put England on the path towards a pluralistic, secularized state, and they and nobody other things made for this change. ”It has been criticized that Haller, although empathetic but also largely uncritical, adopted and limited himself to an exemplary selection and typology of people. According to Leonard Trinterud (1904–1993) this is necessary in order to write a narrative of Puritanism and to grasp the dynamics of changes in thinking, which was the main goal for William Haller.

In 1967 Haller's late work appeared on John Foxe's Book of Martyrs , which, according to Haller, delivered "the one, all-convincing interpretation of being English" in the crisis-ridden late period of Elizabeth I's government between 1570 and 1590, which was England's spiritual global mission "More than anything else led the nation through crises".

Haller also worked professionally with his wife Malleville Haller. Among other things, they jointly wrote an article on the love idea among the Puritans.

Works (selection)

• The Rise of Puritanism, Or, The Way to the New Jerusalem as set forth in Pulpit and Press from Thomas Cartwright to John Lilburne and John Milton, 1570-1643. Columbia University Press, New York 1938; several new editions: as a paperback with Harper & Brothers, New York 1957 (Harper Torchbooks, Vol. 22); 2nd edition, Philadelphia 1984.
• The Puritan Frontier. Town-Planting in New England Colonial Development, 1630–1660. New York 1951.
• “What Needs My Shakespeare?” In: Shakespeare Quarterly 3 (1952), No. 1, pp. 3-16.
• Liberty and Reformation in the Puritan Revolution. Columbia University Press, New York 1955.
• Milton and the Protestant Ethic. In: Journal of British Studies 1 (1961), No. 1, pp. 52-57.
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs and the Elect Nation. Cape, London 1967 (The Bedford Historical Series, Vol. 19).

literature

• Who's Who in America: A biographical dictionary of notable living men and women. Vol. 28, 1954-1955. Marquis Who's Who, Chicago, Ill. 1955, p. 1101.
• Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, Historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55.

Web links

• William Haller in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ George Santayana : To William Haller. Rome, May 21, 1939. In: William G. Holzberger (Ed.): The Letters of George Santayana. Book 6: 1937-1940. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2004, ISBN 978-0-262-19495-2 , (The Works of George Santayana, Vol. 5), pp. 238-240. For the year of death 1974 see p. 240, note 1.
2. ↑ Columbia University Bulletin 25 (1925), p. 32 .
3. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55, here p. 55.
4. ↑ Philip AM Taylor (Ed.): The Origins of the English Civil War. Conspiracy, Crusade, or Class Conflict? Heath, Boston et al. 1968 (Problems in European Civilization), p. 59 .
5. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55, here p. 33.
6. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55, here pp. 34 f.
7. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55, here p. 39.
8. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55, here p. 44: “he asserts that they set England irrevocably on the way toward a pluralistic secularized state, and that they and not others brought about this change in English life. "
9. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33-55, here pp. 46 f.
10. ↑ Leonard J. Trinterud: William Haller, historian of Puritanism. In: Journal of British Studies 5 (1966), No. 2, pp. 33–55, p. 52: “Haller's thesis is that Foxe's book became in this crisis of English history the one all-convincing interpretation of Englishness of 1570– 90. "
11. ^ William Haller, Malleville Haller: The Puritan Art of Love. In: Huntington Library Quarterly 5 (1941/42), pp. 235-272.