Albert Morton Craig is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 academic, historian, author and professor emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

EALC

In American universities, EALC refers to East Asian Languages and Civilizations , and is the term for the department of East Asian studies, which studies this region of the world....

 at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.

Early life

As a youth in Chicago, Craig was a student of judo. A more scholarly interest in Japan was piqued after the Second World War. While serving in the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 in 1947, he was stationed in Miyazaki

Miyazaki, Miyazaki

is the capital city of Miyazaki Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. Located on the coast and perforated by several rivers, Miyazaki City enjoys scenic views of both ocean and nearby, verdant mountains...

 and in Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

.

Craig earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy at Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 in 1949. Then the Fulbright Program

Fulbright Program

The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...

 made it possible for him to study economic history at the University of Strasbourg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

 in Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. This was followed by two years (1951-53) as a graduate student at Kyoto University from 1951 through 1953.

Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 awarded Craig his Ph.D. in history in 1959.

Career

Professor Craig's 50+ years as a member of Harvard's faculty began in 1959. During this period, he was also a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo

, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...

, the University of Kyoto, and Keio University

Keio University

,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...

.

He became the Harvard-Yenching Research Professor of Japanese History. In addition, he served as Director of the Reischauer Institute

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies

Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University is a research center focusing on Japan. It provides a forum for stimulating scholarly and public interest....

 (1983-1985) and as Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard-Yenching Institute

Harvard-Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture...

 (1976-1987).

His research focused primarily on the transition from the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 through the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Albert Craig, OCLC

OCLC

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...

/WorldCat

WorldCat

WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

 encompasses roughly 60+ works in 200+ publications in 7 languages and 8,000+ library holdings.

• Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration (1961)
• Personality in Japanese History (1971), with Donald Shively
  Donald Shively
  Donald Howard Shively was an American academic, historian, Japanologist, author and professor emeritus of East Asian Languages and cultures at University of California, Berkeley.-Early life:...
  
  
• The Heritage of Japanese Civilization (2003)
• The Heritage of Chinese Civilization (2001)
• Civilization and Enlightenment: The Early Thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi(2009)

Honors

• Guggenheim Fellowship
• Fulbright Fellowship
• Japan Foundation Fellowship
• Order of the Rising Sun
  Order of the Rising Sun
  The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...
  
  , 1988