Keller, Morton

views updated

KELLER, MORTON

KELLER, MORTON (1929– ), U.S. historian. Born in New York, Keller received his B.A. from the University of Rochester (1950) and his M.A. (1952) and his Ph.D. from Harvard University (1953). He taught at the North Carolina and Pennsylvania universities, and in 1964 became chairman of the history department at Brandeis University. Specializing in late 19th- and 20th-century American history, he lectured at Harvard and at the University of Sussex, England. After retiring from teaching, Keller became the Spector Professor of History emeritus at Brandeis and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. In 1999 he was named resident scholar at Rockefeller Center at Bellagio and librarian of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He is the author of In Defense of Yesterday: James M. Beck and the Politics of Conservatism, 18611936 (1958), The Life Insurance Enterprises, 18851910 (1963), The Art and Politics of Thomas Nast (1968), Affairs of State (1977), Regulating a New Society (1990), Regulating a New Economy (1990), and Making Harvard Modern (with P. Keller, 2001). He edited The New Deal: What Was It? (1963) and Theodore Roosevelt (1967); and co-edited Taking Stock: American Government in the 20th Century (1999).

[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]