Blue, Frederick J. 1937- (Frederick Judd Blue)

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Blue, Frederick J. 1937- (Frederick Judd Blue)

PERSONAL:

Born April 18, 1937, in Staten Island, NY; son of Leonard Anderson (an attorney) and Helen Blue; married Judith Hertwig (an occupational therapist), 1962; children: Karen, Eric. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1958; University of Wisconsin, M.S., 1962, Ph.D., 1966. Politics: Democratic. Religion: United Church of Christ.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Redmond, OR. Office—Department of History, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH 44503.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio, assistant professor, 1964-69, associate professor of history, 1969—, director of graduate program in history, 1973-2002, professor emeritus, 2002—. Military service: U.S. Army, 1958-60.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians.

WRITINGS:

The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848-1854, University of Illinois Press (Champaign, IL), 1973.

Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics, Kent State University Press (Kent, OH), 1987.

Charles Sumner and the Conscience of the North, Harlan Davidson (Arlington Heights, IL), 1994.

Mahoning Memories: A History of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Donning (Virginia Beach, VA), 1995.

No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge. LA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

A professor emeritus of history from Youngstown State University, Frederick J. Blue is the author of several well-received biographies, including the 1987 title Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics, and Charles Sumner and the Conscience of the North, published in 1994. In 2005 he published No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics, a "book many students of abolitionism will very much want to like," wrote Eric Gardner in a Journal of African American History review. Here Blue "focuses on eleven men and women who campaigned against slavery and the Slave Power," Myra C. Glenn noted in Journal of Southern History. Glenn found the study "a welcome addition to the historiography of antislavery activism in the antebellum United States." Eschewing such obvious choices for the study of abolitionism as Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner, Blue instead focuses on such little-known historical figures as Alvan Stewart, leader of the Liberty Party, and the Republican congressman from Indiana, George Washington Julian. There are other, somewhat better known activists as well, such as John Greenleaf Whittier and Jessie Benton Fremont. Glenn went on to note: "The author makes good use of his subjects' speeches and writings as well as secondary sources to present a succinct, often insightful, collective biography." And though Gardner faulted the author for excluding some names in his collection of biographies, he still lauded No Taint of Compromise: "Blue's latest book more than anything is a reminder of how much work remains to be done to understand the ‘crusaders in antislavery politics.’"