Lowitt, Richard 1922-

PERSONAL:

Born February 25, 1922, in New York, NY; son of Eugene and Eleanor Lowitt; married Suzanne Catharine Carson, September, 1953; children: Peter Carson, Pamela Carson Bennett. Education: City College of New York, B.S.S.; Columbia University, M.A., 1945, Ph.D., 1950.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Norman, OK.

CAREER:

Writer and educator. University of Maryland, College Park, instructor, 1948-52; University of Rhode Island, Kingston, assistant professor, 1952-53; Connecticut College, New London, faculty member, 1953-66, professor of history, 1966; Florida State University, Tallahassee, professor of history, 1966-68; University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1968-77; Iowa State University, Ames, professor, 1977-89, chairman of the department of history, 1977-87; University of Oklahoma, Norman, professor, 1990-97; University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chickasha, regents professor, 1998.

MEMBER:

Agricultural History Society (president, 1991-92), American Historical Association, Southern Historical Association, Western History Association (board of editors, 1986), Organization of American Historians (board of editors, 1985-87).

AWARDS, HONORS:

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellow, 1957; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1974; Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá Award, Historical Society of New Mexico, 1993; Muriel H. Wright Award, Oklahoma Historical Society, 1995 and 2006.

WRITINGS:

A Merchant Prince of the Nineteenth Century, William E. Dodge, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1952.

George W. Norris: The Making of a Progressive, 1861-1912, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1963.

The Truman-MacArthur Controversy, Rand McNally (Chicago, IL), 1967.

George W. Norris: The Persistence of a Progressive, 1913-1933, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1971.

(Editor, with Joseph F. Wall) Interpreting Twentieth-Century America: A Reader, Crowell (New York, NY), 1973.

George W. Norris: The Triumph of a Progressive, 1933-1944, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1978.

America in Depression and War, Forum Press (St. Louis, MO), 1979.

Journal of a Tamed Bureaucrat: Nils A. Olsen and the BAE, 1925-1935, Iowa State University Press (Ames, IA), 1980.

(Editor, with Maurine Beasley) One Third of a Nation: Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 1981.

(Compiler, with Robert E. Burke) The New Era and the New Deal, 1920-1940, Harlan Davidson (Arlington Heights, IL), 1981.

The New Deal and the West, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1984.

Letters from an American Farmer: The Eastern European and Russian Correspondence of Roswell Garst, Northern Illinois University Press (Dekalb, IL), 1987.

(Editor, with Judith Fabry) Henry A. Wallace's Irrigation Frontier: On the Trail of the Corn Belt Farmer, 1909, University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK), 1991.

Bronson M. Cutting: Progressive Politician, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1992.

Politics in the Postwar American West, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1995.

Fred Harris: His Journey from Liberalism to Populism, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Lanham, MD), 2002.

(With Valerie Sherer Mathes) The Standing Bear Controversy: Prelude to Indian Reform, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2003.

American Outback: The Oklahoma Panhandle in the Twentieth Century, Texas Tech University Press (Lubbock, TX), 2006.

(Editor, with Carolyn G. Hanneman) Elmer Thomas, Forty Years a Legislator, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Richard Lowitt is a prolific writer and editor whose published works have focused on American history, particularly topics related to early twentieth-century politics. Several of his books are biographies of American politicians, including George W. Norris: The Making of a Progressive, 1861-1912, George W. Norris: The Persistence of a Progressive, 1913-1933, George W. Norris: The Triumph of a Progressive, 1933-1944, Bronson M. Cutting: Progressive Politician, and Fred Harris: His Journey from Liberalism to Populism. Other works have been more subject-oriented, specifically assessing politics and life in post-World War II America, such as The Truman-MacArthur Controversy, America in Depression and War, The New Deal and the West, and Politics in the Postwar American West.

Many of Lowitt's books have been noted for their depth of research and careful analysis. Journal of Southern History contributor Phillip M. Simpson called Fred Harris "an important book for citizens, politicians, activists, and scholars, including historians and political scientists" and "a very worthy book about one of Oklahoma's favorite sons and one of the more interesting politicians of recent American politics." The Standing Bear Controversy: Prelude to Indian Reform, which Lowitt wrote with Valerie Sherer Mathes, was described as an "insightful and valuable work" by Library Journal reviewer John Burch. As coeditor of One Third of a Nation: Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression, Lowitt earned this remark by Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare contributor John M. Herrick: "The editors' work in compiling Hickok's reports is commendable."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, March, 2002, John M. Herrick, review of One Third of a Nation: Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression, p. 183.

Journal of Southern History, May, 2005, Phillip M. Simpson, review of Fred Harris: His Journey from Liberalism to Populism, p. 503.

Library Journal, August, 2003, John Burch, review of The Standing Bear Controversy: Prelude to Indian Reform, p. 103.