Position

AHA President, 1911

Institution

Columbia University

Presidential Address

The Substance and Vision of History

 

In Memoriam

From the American Historical Review 34:1 (October 1928)

William Milligan Sloane (November 12, 1850–September 12, 1928) died on September 12 after a long illness. As he had a deep interest in the American Historical Association, served as an editor of this Review and as president of the Association, he was well known to all the older members, who grieve for the loss of a friend. He was born in 1850; from 1873–1875 he was secretary to George Bancroft in Berlin; he was professor in Princeton for 20 years and in Columbia for an equal period, until his retirement in 1916. He was the author of many works of which the best known is Napoleon Bonaparte, in four volumes, published in 1901, revised edition in 1911. He was continually writing and his friends referred to his “five-foot shelf” of works; the last, Greater France in Africa, was published in 1924. He was president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and was the recipient of decorations from the French and Swedish governments.

Bibliography

The French war and the Revolution; with maps. New York: Charles Scribner’s sons, 1893; Reprint, with a new introduction and preface by George Athan Billias. Boston: Gregg Press, 1972.

Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, by William Milligan Sloane. 4 vols. New York: Century, 1896; Reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1969.

The French revolution and religious reform; an account of ecclesiastical legislation and its influence on affairs in France from 1789 to 1804. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1901.

The Balkans; a laboratory of history, by William M. Sloane. New York: Eaton & Mains; Cincinnati: Jennings & Graham, 1914.

Party government in the United States of America, by William Milligan Sloane. New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1914.

The powers and aims of western democracy, by William Milligan Sloane. New York: C. Scribner, 1919.

Greater France in Africa, by William Milligan Sloane. New York, London: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1924.