John M. Blum, longtime Yale professor and author or editor of 18 books, died a week ago today. He was 90.
As the New York Times wrote, most of Blum's books "explored in some way the personalities and circumstances that drove political leaders to become agents of progressive social change, even when... they were heirs to wealth rooted in the American status quo."
Among his subjects were Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. He was credited with reversing the early generally negative opinion of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Blum's students included former President George W. Bush, Senator John Kerry and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Another former student, historian David Greenberg, noted on Slate that in one seminar, Blum required students to write a paper without using adjectives, adverbs or the verb "to be."
That's very difficult.
