During World War I he briefly wore an army uniform before acting as a consultant to the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In World War II he received a commission in the United States Navy and participated in many of the sea battles he was later to describe so vividly. This son of New England was very proud of his Puritan heritage, and yet his own life was quite ecumenical. If there was one thing that his Puritan ancestors detested more than Satan himself, it was episcopacy, yet this scion of several of New England's oldest families preferred to take communion in the Episcopal church. By contrast with the antipapist attitude of his ancestors, Morison gladly accepted nearly one-third of his honorary doctorates from Roman Catholic colleges; he even journeyed to Rome in order to receive the prestigious Balzan Award in the company of fellow-recipient, Pope John XXIII.
History, as far as Morison was concerned, was primarily literature. He continued in his own career the tradition established by George Bancroft, John L. Motley, William H. Prescott, and especially Francis Parkman. In so doing, Morison ignored or avoided several contemporary trends such as economic determinism and psychohistory.
This is a free page. This page contains 187 words. This
biography contains 6,360 words (approx. 21 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Samuel Eliot Morison Access Pass.
