Chrisman, Miriam Usher 1920- (Miriam U. Chrisman)

PERSONAL:

Born May 20, 1920, in Ithaca, NY; daughter of Abbott Payson (a professor of history) and Miriam (a homemaker) Usher; married O. Donald Chrisman (an orthopedic surgeon), November 29, 1943; children: Nicholas Ramsey, David Abbott. Ethnicity: "White American." Education: Smith College, A.B. (magna cum laude), 1941, M.A., 1955; American University, M.A., 1948; Yale University, Ph.D., 1962. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Episcopalian.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bedford, MA.

CAREER:

National Resources Planning Board, Washington, DC, research assistant, 1941-43; National Planning Association, Washington, DC, research assistant, 1943-46; teacher at private girls' schools in Wellesley, MA, 1946-47, Baltimore, MD, 1947-49, and Northampton, MA, 1949-57; Smith College, Northampton, instructor in history, 1955-57; University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, instructor, 1962-63, assistant professor, 1963-68, associate professor, 1968-71, professor of early modern social history, 1972-86, Chancellor's Lecturer, 1985, professor emeritus, 1986—. Archive for Reformation History, American managing editor, 1982-88.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, American Society for Reformation Research (president, 1972-77), Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference (vice president, 1969-71), Phi Beta Kappa, Appalachian Mountain Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Prix d'honneur, Societe des Amis de Vieux Strasbourg, 1983; D.H.L., Valparaiso University, 1984; Wilbur Cross Medal, Yale University, 1996.

WRITINGS:

Strasbourg and the Reform: A Study in the Process of Change, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1967.

(Under name Miriam U. Chrisman; editor, with Knox Mellon, Jr.) Like It Was, Like It Is: People and Issues in the Western World; A Reader, Volume 2, Scott, Foresman (Glenview, IL), 1972.

(Editor, with Otto Gründler, and contributor) Social Groups and Religious Ideas in the Sixteenth Century, Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), 1978.

Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1982.

Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1982.

Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-1530, Humanities Press (Atlantic Highlands, NJ), 1996.

Contributor to books in English, French, and German, including Reformation Principles and Practice, edited by Peter N. Brooks, editor, Scholar's Press, 1980; and The Reformation in Germany and Europe: Interpretations and Issues, edited by Hans Guggisberg and Gottfried Krodel, Sonderband Archive for Reformation Research, 1993. Contributor of articles and reviews to history journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Miriam Usher Chrisman once told CA: "My major interest has been to try to discover what ordinary people thought in the past. For this reason, I chose the field of Reformation history, where change occurred very rapidly. The question led me to undertake the study of all surviving books published in the city of Strasbourg from 1480 to 1599, which opened up a lay culture based on empirical scientific interests, novels, plays, and journalism. One of the things I found was a series of pamphlets written early in the Reformation by the lower nobility, patricians, lawyers, and, above all, artisans. This led to new research, not just restricted to Strasbourg, to find more pamphlets." She later added: "Each social group had its own view of the Reformation. The nobility and magistrates believed it would give them power to direct the church. The artisans believed it would bring social justice. The civil servants envisioned utopias."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Bebb, Phillip N., and Sherrin Marshall, editors, The Process of Change in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of Miriam Usher Chrisman, Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 1988.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1983, review of Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599 and Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599, p. 1005; February, 1998, review of Conflicting Visions of Reform: German Lay Propaganda Pamphlets, 1519-1530, p. 205.

Central European History, fall, 1996, James M. Stayer, review of Conflicting Visions of Reform, p. 860.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 1998, E.J. Furcha, review of Conflicting Visions of Reform, p. 252.

Speculum, July, 1984, review of Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599 and Lay Culture, Learner Culture, p. 631.