CAMPBELL, Ballard Crooker, Jr. 1940-

PERSONAL: Born November 30, 1940, in Orange, NJ; son of Ballard C. (in business) and Ruth A. (Boman) Campbell; married Wendy E. Kent (an artist), December 26, 1965; children: Cynthia Ann, Erica Lynn, Dayne. Education: Northwestern University, B.A. (political science), 1962; Northeastern University, M.A. (history), 1964; University of Wisconsin—Madison, Ph.D. (history), 1970.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Department of History, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: Author and professor of American history. Northeastern University, Boston, MA, instructor, 1969-70, assistant professor, 1970-75, associate professor of history, 1975-82, professor of history, 1982—. Member of Arlington, MA, town meeting, 1979. Northeastern University Ph.D. Program in Law, Policy, and Society, director of the dissertation committee, 1987—, chair, 1991—. Also lecturer and presenter.

MEMBER: American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Immigration History Society, Social Science Historical Association (executive committee, 1996-99), and Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE; vice-president, 2000-02, president, 2002-04).

AWARDS, HONORS: Research grants, American Philosophical Society, 1971, 1982; fellow, Charles Warren Center, Harvard University, 1976-77; research grants, Northeastern University, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1998; fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1982.

WRITINGS:

(Contributor) Stephan Botein and others, editors, Experiments in History Teaching, Danford Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), 1977.

Representative Democracy: Public Policy and Midwestern Legislatures in the Late Nineteenth Century, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1980.

The Growth of American Government: Governance from the Cleveland Era to the Present, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1995.

(Editor, contributor, and author of introduction) The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, SR Books (Wilmington, DE), 2000.

(Editor and contributor with William G. Shade) American Presidential Campaigns and Elections (3 vols.), Sharpe Reference (Armonk, NY), 2003.

Contributor of articles to history journals and newspapers, including Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Historical Methods, Wisconsin Magazine of History, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Social Science History, Journal of Policy History, and Boston Evening Globe. Has contributed book reviews to American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Historian, H-NET: Humanities Online, and New England Quarterly.

Contributor to books, including The Gilded Age: Essays on the Origins of Modern America, edited by Charles W. Calhoun, Scholarly Resources, Inc. (Wilmington, DE), 1996; and American National Biography, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999. Also contributor to encyclopedias, including Encyclopedia of American Political History, Congressional Quarterly (Washington, DC), 2001; Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY), 2001; and Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 1877-1920 ME Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 2003.

Editorial appointments include coeditor of H-SHGAPE, 1995—; executive board, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 1999—, chair 2002-04; editorial board, Social Sciences History, 1996-2001; associate editor, American National Biography,, 1990-99.

WORK IN PROGRESS: (With Kriste Lindenmeyer, William Shade, and Sheila Skemp) The Challenge of America: A History of the United States (Longman, 2004 or 2005); Economic Impacts on State and Society, 1873-1924; The Depression of the 1870s and the World Economy; Policy Regimes in American History, 1783-2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Ballard C. Campbell once told CA: "The serious study of any dimension of our universe has an infectious quality. Those afflicted with the malady experience the meaning of the aphorism: the more one learns, the less one knows. Paradoxically, the search for the cure only worsens the disease. History in particular embodies this dilemma; the quest to understand the complexities of the human past is never finished. This, I suppose, explains why I had laid plans to write two more books before I had completed my first. This outsider no doubt finds it difficult to comprehend the intellectual perplexities that bedevil scholars."

After writing Representative Democracy: Public Policy and Midwestern Legislatures in the Late Nineteenth Century, revered Northeastern University history professor Ballard C. Campbell found himself "infected" with the dynamic aspects of America's political history. In his following work, The Growth of American Government: Governance from the Cleveland Era to the Present, Campbell looks at the development of U.S. government from the viewpoint of a historian, rather than a political scientist. Throughout the book, Campbell elaborates on four specific forms of American governmental organization: a Republican polity (1780s to 1870s), a transitional polity (1870s-1920s), a claimant polity (1930s-1980s), and most cautiously, a restrained polity (1980s to present). He examines the American citizen's shift from fear of government at the end of the nineteenth century to certainty in government. Parallel to this alteration is the government's own shift from local and state to federal power, which Campbell also details, along with the movements that attempted to stop such reallocation of power. He points out that government regulations and taxation increased in the transitional polity, social welfare became very important in the claimant polity, and taxes dropped and privatization became important in the restrained polity. Campbell lists a number of factors—including industrialization and internal governmental pressure and desire to develop—that have interacted to contribute to the growth of government.

The Growth of American Government caused a stir within the political science community upon its publication, receiving a wide range of reviews. Political scientists who reviewed the book found Campbell's views alternately true and troubling. Political Science Quarterly contributor Thomas R. Dye felt that the book was "an unexceptional overview of American political history," stating that "the absence of a guiding explanatory theory . . . may disappoint and perhaps even frustrate political scientists expecting more than a narrative description of political eras." Journal of Interdisciplinary History contributor James C. Scott expressed a similar opinion: "The book's attempt to offer a theoretical explanation for the growth of American government is arguably its least satisfying part—at least from the vantage point of a political scientist. . . . In the end, Campbell rejects parsimony and explanation for comprehensiveness and descriptive richness." However, Scott also maintained that the book was "a marvelous multidisciplinary synthesis" and an "impressively researched and highly readable history."

H-Net Reviews contributor Larry G. Gerber felt that the vast expanse of subject matter in The Growth of American Government is an attribute rather than a detriment. "Scholars will be impressed by Campbell's ability to cover so much ground in only 241 pages of text. While the growth of government is a familiar theme," Gerber pointed out, "perhaps no other historian has so successfully interwoven developments at the national, state, and local level over such a long period of time." On the demarcation between historian and political scientist, American Political Science Review contributor Charles T. Goodsell pointed out that "While we political scientists are often restless in the presence of the historian's interest in the concrete rather than the abstract, historians can teach us valuable lessons."

Campbell next edited and contributed to a compilation of biographical essays intended for classroom use as part of the "Human Tradition in U.S. History" series. The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era presents examinations of some of the most important social and political work of its thirteen subjects, including noted 1890s newspaper editor, owner, and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, Progressive California governor (1911-1917) Hiram Johnson, and New York born writer Edith Wharton, who helped WWI refugees in Paris. "Together, these well-crafted, intelligently written essays stress 'the capacity of human will and the tenacity of personal commitment,'" wrote Robert C. Bannister, quoting Campbell's introduction in a review for H-Net Reviews. The book includes an essay by Campbell on Richard Olney, 1893 U.S. Attorney General famous for his enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against the American Railway Union during the Pullman strike, showing once again Campbell's interest in politics as related to history.

William G. Shade, professor emeritus at Lehigh University, joined Campbell for his next editorial compilation, American Presidential Campaigns and Elections, a three-volume set detailing the each of the country's presidential races. Forty-four scholars contributed essays to the book, which begins with an examination of the origin and evolution of the American electoral college and moves into an assessment of the roles of third parties in American politics, press and media, campaign finance, and presidential character. Then each presidential election in American history—from 1788 to 2000'is outlined, complete with biographical sketches of its players, as well as speeches, letters, debates, slogans, and editorials. Maps show the dispersion of electoral votes throughout states in each election, and over two hundred photos, illustrations, and cartoons act as visual guides as readers travel through this political history. "Although there are other reference sources that cover various aspects of U.S. presidential elections, none provide this kind of detailed election-by-election history," wrote one Booklist contributor. "The text is both readable and informative, enhanced by good organization, well-chosen features, and attractive design." This "fascinating" series, as described by Library Journal's William D. Pederson, is rounded out with six appendices and two indexes.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Directory of American Scholars, 10th edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, April, 1984, review of Representative Democracy: Public Policy and Midwestern Legislatures in the Late Nineteenth Century, p. 530; April, 1997, William R. Tanner, review of The Growth of American Government: Governance from the Cleveland Era to the Present, pp. 541-542.

American Political Science Review, September, 1996, Charles T. Goodsell, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 644-645.

Booklist, October 1, 2003, review of American Presidential Campaigns and Elections, p. 346.

CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February, 1996, J.G. Edgens, review of The Growth of American Government, p. 102.

Congress & the Presidency, spring, 1996, John T. Coleman, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 69-71.

Historian, winter, 1997, Daniel Levine, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 423-424.

Journal of American History, December, 1996, William Brock, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 1031-1032.

Journal of Economic History, September, 1996, Patrick D. Reagan, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 752-753.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, summer, 1982, review of Representative Democracy, p. 170; summer, 1998, James C. Scott, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 145-146.

Library Journal, August, 2003, William D. Pederson, review of American Presidential Campaigns and Elections, p. 68.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 1996, Thomas R. Dye, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 378-379.

Reviews in American History, March, 1982, review of Representative Democracy, p. 78; June, 1998, Allan J. Lichtman, review of The Growth of American Government, pp. 445-451.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, www.h-net.org/ (September, 1997), Rebecca Menes, review of The Growth of American Government; (June, 1998), Don Debats, Larry G. Gerber, and David Brian Robertson, reviews of The Growth of American Government; (April, 2002), Robert C. Bannister, review of The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; (May, 2002), review of The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; (October, 2002), Ballard Campbell, review of Lewis L. Gould's America in the Progressive Era.

M.E. Sharpe,http://www.mesharpe.com/ (June 8, 2004), description of American Presidential Campaigns and Elections.

Northeastern University Department of History Web site,http://www.history.neu.edu/ (June 7, 2004), "Faculty," curriculum vita for Ballard C. Campbell.*