Benson J. Lossing and Historical Writing in the United States: 1830-1890

Benson J. Lossing (1813-1891), whose career as a populizer of United States history spanned nearly sixty years, is the focus of this study of the production and uses of history in nineteenth-century American culture. After an introduction on relevant theory and methodology and the background for American historical writing, nine chronological chapters trace Lossing’s career from an impoverished youth in rural New York through a thirty-year sojourn in New York City and later periods of voluminous writing. A conclusion discusses how Lossing’s reputation suffered after the rise of academic historians who perceived him as lacking scholarly exactitude.