Christianson, John Robert 1934- (J.R. Christianson)

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Christianson, John Robert 1934- (J.R. Christianson)

PERSONAL:

Born January 21, 1934, in Mankato, MN; son of K.O. (in business) and Marian Christine Christianson; married Birgitte Povelsen, June 20, 1964; children: Erik Kenneth Gyde, Paul Frederik Gyde. Eth-nicity: "Scandinavian-American." Education: Mankato State Teachers College (now Minnesota State University Mankato), B.A. (with honors), 1956; University of Copenhagen, graduate study, 1956-57, 1962-63; University of Minnesota, M.A., 1959, Ph.D., 1964. Religion: Lutheran.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Decorah, IA. Office—Luther College, Decorah, IA 52101. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of South Dakota, Vermillion, assistant professor of history, 1964-66; University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, Minneapolis, visiting assistant professor, 1966-67; Luther College, Decorah, IA, associate professor, 1967-72, professor of history, 1972-96, research professor, 1998—, department chair, 1967-83. Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, assistant director, 1969-90. Military service: U.S. Army, 1958-60.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Den Danske Historiske Forening, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, American-Scandinavian Foundation, Norwegian-American Historical Association (member of executive committee, 1971-2004), Danish American Heritage Society (member of board of directors, 1998—), Phi Beta Kappa.

WRITINGS:

(With E.S. Ress, G. Liebow, and I.I. Olicker) Man Builds Tomorrow, Creative Educational Society (Mankato, MN), 1966.

(Editor; under name J.R. Christianson) Scandinavians in America: Literary Life, Symra Literary Society (Decorah, IA), 1985.

(Editor; under name J.R. Christianson) Camilla Sperati Strom, Carlo A Sperati: The Grand Old Maestro, Luther College Press (Decorah, IA), 1988.

On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and His Assistants, 1570-1601, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1999, revised edition, 2003.

(Editor, with Alena Hadravová, Petr Hadrava, and Martin Šolc) Tycho Brahe and Prague: Crossroads of European Science, Verlag Harri Deutsch (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 2002.

Contributor to books, including Exploring the Universe, edited by Louise B. Young, McGraw Hill (New York, NY), 1963; Diving into the Past, edited by J.D. Holmquist and A.H. Wheeler, Minnesota Historical Society, 1964; and The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe, edited by Victor E. Thoren, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990. Contributor to American Scandinavian Review, Scientific American, Centaurus, Isis, Sixteenth-Century Journal, and other journals. Editor, Bridge: Journal of the Danish American Heritage Society, 1998-2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

John Robert Christianson told CA: "My family has lived in America for seven generations without losing sight of our Scandinavian ancestral roots. My research and writing have led me into two parts of the Scandinavian story. One is the cultural history of Norwegians and Danes in America against the background of driving forces that led them to leave their homelands. The other is the history of Denmark and Norway in the Reformation and Renaissance of the sixteenth century. I see this period as the crucible of the modern world, when European history expanded to a global scale, and when modern patterns of Western culture emerged. I have written mainly about the transformation of ‘natural philosophy’ into what we call science, and the role played in that development by the Danish astronomer and courtier Tycho Brahe."

"My book On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe and His Assistants, 1570-1601 shows how Tycho Brahe built a large, unprecedented, centrally directed research facility on the island of Hven. The book includes capsule biographies of nearly one hundred men and a few women who came to work under Tycho Brahe's direction. They were mathematicians, humanists, and technicians from many lands, and their work spanned the fields of astronomy, astrology, cartography, chemistry, meteorology, hydraulics, and geodetic triangular surveying, as well as music, painting, poetry, philosophy, sculpture, printing, and courtly entertainment." "Christianson's narrative combines the intrigue of Reformation courts with the excitement of early modern science," noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

Christianson commented: "In recent years my interests have moved toward court history, because all aspects of cultural activity, including science, were drawn to the courts of princes in the Renaissance period. I have also begun to consider environmental and religious practices in times of environmental crisis, from the Middle Ages to the present."