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Essay on The Life and Professional Writings of William B. Hesseltine
William Best Hesseltine, Vilas professor of history at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, was born in Brucetown, Virginia on February 21, 1902. He retained strong Southern connections throughout his life. A graduate of Washington and Lee University (1922), he taught for a few years in Alabama and Missouri before resuming his studies at the University of Virginia, where he received his M.A. degree, and at Ohio State University where he completed his doctorate in 1928. He published his first two books while serving on the faculty of the University of Chattanooga. In 1932, he went to the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor. He remained on the faculty of the Department of History for the 31 years.
Devoting himself to the Civil War period in American History, Professor Hesseltine wrote more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles. From the beginning of his writing career, his books were significant contributions to the scholarly community, and interesting and accessible to lay readers. Among his most important works are Civil War Prisons (1930), Ulysses S. Grant, Politician (1935), and Lincoln and the War Governors (1948).
His flair for the dramatic and his gift for illuminating the paradoxes of history enriched both his writing and his speaking. He is remembered as a truly remarkable teacher. In addition to his contributions to historical scholarship, he exerted enormous influence upon his profession through his training of graduate students. A measure of his enduring influence is that six of his titles are still available in print twenty-five years after his death.
His later career was marked by the accumulating recognition of his peers. He was awarded honorary degrees from Washington and Lee University and Knox College. In 1961, he served as president of the Southern Historical Association, and at the time of his death in 1963 he was president of the Wisconsin State Historical Society....
