Gene M. Gressley | In Memoriam: Earl Pomeroy 1915–2005 | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.3

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Gene M. Gressley | In Memoriam: Earl Pomeroy 1915–2005 | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.3 | The History Cooperative

In Memoriam

Earl Pomeroy
1915–2005

Earl Pomeroy re-conceptualized the field of western history. In a notable, much quoted essay, "Toward a Reorientation of Western History: Continuity and Environment," Pomeroy argued that continuities, imitativeness, conservatism, and persistence of inheritance were the slash marks of the western movement, not the environmental radicalism of Frederick Jackson Turner. Throughout his lifetime, though, Pomeroy was quick to express admiration for Turner's social science and analytical tools.

Pomeroy's complex character defies easy capture. His lectures to undergraduates were often rewarded with blank stares; graduate students found his seminars stimulating and challenging. Convinced that frequently "flabbier" minds took refuge in western history, Pomeroy once told one bewildered student planning his graduate curriculum, "to take everyone up and down the departmental hall." Pomeroy fervently desired that his students be immersed in and thoroughly trained in as many fields of history as possible. Knowledge of this opinion, combined with a respect for Pomeroy's powerful intellect intimidated more than one graduate student with the result that his seminars were less populated than he would have liked. Highly analytical, self effacing, a delightful conversationalist whose thought processes revealed the unceasing comparative "on the one hand", and "on the other hand" often to the puzzlement of his audience, a voracious reader with a legendary command of bibliography—this is the man we remember.

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In Memoriam

Earl Pomeroy1915–2005

Earl Pomeroy
1915–2005