T. Harry Williams
Encyclopedia
Thomas Harry Williams was an award-winning historian
at Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge whose career began in 1941 and extended for thirty-eight years until his death at the age of seventy. A popular faculty member, Williams is perhaps best known for his American Civil War
study, Lincoln and His Generals, a "Book of the Month" selection from 1952, and his Huey Long, the definitive 1969 study of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize
.
, to William D. Williams and the former Emma Necollins. His father died when Williams was a small boy, and he was reared by an uncle and grandmother. He was educated in the schools of the village of Hazel Green, Wisconsin
. He procured his bachelor of arts
degree in 1931 from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville (then Platteville State College) in Platteville
. He thereafter obtained his Master of Arts
and Ph.D.
from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
in 1932 and 1937, respectively. He first instructed history in the extension division of UW from 1936 to 1938. He then accepted a professorship at the University of Omaha in Nebraska
from 1938 to 1941. Then Williams relocated to LSU, where he was anchored as Boyd Professor for the remainder of his career.
The Boyd chair is named for Thomas Duckett Boyd, a former LSU president during the peak of the post-Civil War mythology
of The Lost Cause
of the Confederacy
. Boyd was a brother of David French Boyd
, a Confederate officer who had served on the original LSU faculty when the school was based in Alexandria
and under the first LSU president and subsequent Union Army
General
William Tecumseh Sherman
. During his career, Williams did much to debunk the premises and defenders of The Lost Cause.
as part of his key source material in the preparation of Huey Long, having interviewed scores of supporters and opponents of the "Louisiana Kingfish
". On November 2, 1959, Williams presented the presidential address "The Gentleman from Louisiana: Demagogue or Democrat" before the Southern Historical Association. Williams told his fellow historians and their guests that Huey Long's governorship marked the end of the half-century of Louisiana history since the close of congressional Reconstruction. Before 1928, Louisiana had only 296 miles of concrete roads, 35 miles of asphalt, 5,728 miles of gravel, and three major bridges, none of which crossed the Mississippi River
either at New Orleans or Baton Rouge. Trains had to uncouple and ferry across the river. By 1935, when Long was assassinated
, Williams observed that the state had 2,446 miles of concrete roads, 1,308 miles of asphalt, 9,629 miles of gravel, and more than 40 major bridges. He concluded that Long was "a powerful and sometimes ruthless political boss" but not one who fit the definition of a fascist
, as often claimed by Long's detractors.
In 1971, Williams endorsed former U.S. Representative Gillis William Long
in the Democratic
primary for governor, a race ultimately won by Edwin Washington Edwards. Harold B. McSween
, whom Gillis Long unseated in the 8th district congressional primary in 1962 but who after a reconciliation was backing Long for governor, was asked to introduce Williams. The historian would in turn present Long to viewers of a statewide television
hookup from the Rivergate in New Orleans. McSween said that he learned at the time of that occasion that Williams was "still obsessed with the subject of Huey Long but also with the significance of [Long's] place in the nation's political evolution: perhaps a new interpretation."
McSween recalled having met Williams for the last time in 1976 in McSween's Alexandria home, where the former congressman asked the historian about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Huey Long. McSween recalled Williams having referred to Roosevelt as "an elitist snob who looked down on Huey as a low-born common man not to be trusted. Huey underrated FDR and the huge political apparatus that FDR would set against him: sending a battalion of IRS
agents to Louisiana and awarding political patronage to Huey's enemies. Huey reacted by extracting even more power from the Louisiana legislature, meeting in special sessions, for the caretaker state administration that he controlled from Washington
as if [still] governor."
Williams' claim that Long received incompetent medical treatment after the shooting was rebuffed in 1983 by the physician Edgar Hull
, who was among those who treated Long and who would later become the first Dean of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
. Hull, who had by then retired to his native Pascagoula
, Mississippi
, claimed that the wound was so severe that Long could not be healed. Hull also said that he should have pressed more forcefully for an autopsy
to settle lingering doubts about the assassination and demise of the Louisiana political icon.
of Oxford University in Great Britain
from 1966-1967. He was president of the Southern Historical Association from 1958–1959 and of the Organization of American Historians
from 1972-1973.
Williams guest lectured at more than fifty colleges in the United States and Europe
. He participated in countless Civil War Roundtables. In 1964, he received the Harry S. Truman
Award in Civil War History. During his career, Williams was honored with Doctor of Law recognition from Northland College
(1953); a Guggenheim Fellow (1957); Doctor of Letters from Bradley University
in Peoria
, Illinois (1959); Harmsworth Professor of American History, Queen's College
, Oxford, England
(1966–1967), and Doctor of Humane Letters from Loyola University
and Tulane University
, both in New Orleans, in 1974 and 1979, respectively.
On Williams' death, the LSU Board of Supervisors established the T. Harry Williams Chair of American History. There is also the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History and the T. Harry Williams Scholarship at LSU. Professor Mark T. Carleton
was among those who worked with Williams in establishing the oral history center.
Williams was a mentor to many historians, including Charles P. Roland
, who spent the bulk of his academic career at Tulane University
and the University of Kentucky
.
major from Alexandria, recalled having visited Williams' lectures without being enrolled in the course, for he wanted inspiration and not college credit and the requirement to take notes:
"In contrast to the general run of lecturer, who might read from a sheaf of tattered pages in a monologue or employ distracting bombast—or make failed attempts at humor, a driven Williams would engage his auditors with rapid-fire volleys in a conversational voice off the cuff without lectern, text, or notes. He knew what he wanted to say, and he said it without missing a beat. He used simple declaratory sentences with hardly a dependent clause and no filler-type utterances such as 'uh', 'as it were', or 'you know'. If transcribed, his fast 50-minute expositions might have required twice the pages of those of others, so much ground he covered."
) a standard textbook still utilized in American history survey courses, edited seven works, and published more than 40 articles and some 325 book reviews.
Other acclaimed works included: Lincoln and the Radicals (1941), P.G.T. Beauregard, Napoleon in Gray (1955), Romance and Realism in Southern Politics (1961), McClellan, Sherman, and Grant (1962), Americans at War: The American Military System, and, posthumously, History of American Wars (1981) and The Selected Essays of T. Harry Williams (1983). He also wrote the foreword of John D. Winters
' The Civil War in Louisana (1963).
degree from LSU in business administration and procured a master's in English. She joined the LSU faculty in 1938 and taught freshman composition and grammar for twenty-five years. The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History established the Estelle Skolfield Williams Graduate Assistantship in her honor, a reflection of her work in helping her husband record oral interviews for the book Huey Long.
T. Harry Williams adopted Estelle's adult daughter, Mai Frances Lower (born 1929), who subsequently married John Jones Doles, Jr.
(1923–2004), of Plain Dealing
, a member of a prominent Bossier Parish family who in 1982-1983 served as president of the Louisiana Bankers Association. Doles was the only child of John Jones Doles, Sr.
, of Plain Dealing, who served in the Louisiana State Senate
from 1952-1956. John and Mai Doles had four daughters, whom Williams considered his own granddaughters. Mai Doles, Williams's only surviving heir, is retired in Shreveport
.
Professor Williams died of pneumonia
less than two months after his retirement from the LSU faculty. At the time of his passing, he had already completed significant research and written two chapters of a pending biography of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
.
Harry and Estelle Williams are interred at Roselawn Cemetery in Baton Rouge.
In 1998, Williams was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
in Winnfield
.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge whose career began in 1941 and extended for thirty-eight years until his death at the age of seventy. A popular faculty member, Williams is perhaps best known for his American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
study, Lincoln and His Generals, a "Book of the Month" selection from 1952, and his Huey Long, the definitive 1969 study of Huey Pierce Long, Jr., winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
.
From Illinois to LSU
Williams was born in Vinegar Hill Township, Jo Daviess County, IllinoisVinegar Hill Township, Jo Daviess County, Illinois
Vinegar Hill Township is one of twenty-three townships in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 250. Its name changed from Mann Township on September 18, 1857.-Geography:...
, to William D. Williams and the former Emma Necollins. His father died when Williams was a small boy, and he was reared by an uncle and grandmother. He was educated in the schools of the village of Hazel Green, Wisconsin
Hazel Green, Wisconsin
Hazel Green is a village in Grant and Lafayette Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,183 at the 2000 census. The village is located mostly within the Town of Hazel Green in Grant County; only a small portion extends into the Town of Benton in Lafayette...
. He procured his bachelor of arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1931 from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville (then Platteville State College) in Platteville
Platteville, Wisconsin
Platteville is the largest city in Grant County in southwestern Wisconsin. The population was 11,224 at the 2010 census, growing 12% since the 2000 Census. Much of this growth is likely due to the enrollment increase of the University of Wisconsin–Platteville...
. He thereafter obtained his Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
and Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
in 1932 and 1937, respectively. He first instructed history in the extension division of UW from 1936 to 1938. He then accepted a professorship at the University of Omaha in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
from 1938 to 1941. Then Williams relocated to LSU, where he was anchored as Boyd Professor for the remainder of his career.
The Boyd chair is named for Thomas Duckett Boyd, a former LSU president during the peak of the post-Civil War mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
of The Lost Cause
Lost Cause of the Confederacy
The Lost Cause is the name commonly given to an American literary and intellectual movement that sought to reconcile the traditional white society of the U.S. South to the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War of 1861–1865...
of the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. Boyd was a brother of David French Boyd
David French Boyd
David French Boyd was a U.S. teacher and educational administrator. He served as the first head of Louisiana State University , where he was a professor of mathematics and moral philosophy...
, a Confederate officer who had served on the original LSU faculty when the school was based in Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
and under the first LSU president and subsequent Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
. During his career, Williams did much to debunk the premises and defenders of The Lost Cause.
Fascination with Huey Long
Williams used oral historyOral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
as part of his key source material in the preparation of Huey Long, having interviewed scores of supporters and opponents of the "Louisiana Kingfish
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
". On November 2, 1959, Williams presented the presidential address "The Gentleman from Louisiana: Demagogue or Democrat" before the Southern Historical Association. Williams told his fellow historians and their guests that Huey Long's governorship marked the end of the half-century of Louisiana history since the close of congressional Reconstruction. Before 1928, Louisiana had only 296 miles of concrete roads, 35 miles of asphalt, 5,728 miles of gravel, and three major bridges, none of which crossed the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
either at New Orleans or Baton Rouge. Trains had to uncouple and ferry across the river. By 1935, when Long was assassinated
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
, Williams observed that the state had 2,446 miles of concrete roads, 1,308 miles of asphalt, 9,629 miles of gravel, and more than 40 major bridges. He concluded that Long was "a powerful and sometimes ruthless political boss" but not one who fit the definition of a fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, as often claimed by Long's detractors.
In 1971, Williams endorsed former U.S. Representative Gillis William Long
Gillis William Long
Gillis William Long was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Louisiana and member of the Long family. Long served seven non-consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives but placed third in two campaigns for the Democratic gubernatorial nominations in 1963 and 1971...
in the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
primary for governor, a race ultimately won by Edwin Washington Edwards. Harold B. McSween
Harold B. McSween
Harold Barnett McSween was a Louisiana businessman and politician who served in the now defunct 8th congressional district for two terms as a Democrat....
, whom Gillis Long unseated in the 8th district congressional primary in 1962 but who after a reconciliation was backing Long for governor, was asked to introduce Williams. The historian would in turn present Long to viewers of a statewide television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
hookup from the Rivergate in New Orleans. McSween said that he learned at the time of that occasion that Williams was "still obsessed with the subject of Huey Long but also with the significance of [Long's] place in the nation's political evolution: perhaps a new interpretation."
McSween recalled having met Williams for the last time in 1976 in McSween's Alexandria home, where the former congressman asked the historian about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and Huey Long. McSween recalled Williams having referred to Roosevelt as "an elitist snob who looked down on Huey as a low-born common man not to be trusted. Huey underrated FDR and the huge political apparatus that FDR would set against him: sending a battalion of IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
agents to Louisiana and awarding political patronage to Huey's enemies. Huey reacted by extracting even more power from the Louisiana legislature, meeting in special sessions, for the caretaker state administration that he controlled from Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
as if [still] governor."
Williams' claim that Long received incompetent medical treatment after the shooting was rebuffed in 1983 by the physician Edgar Hull
Edgar Hull
Edgar Hull, Jr. , was a physician from Louisiana and in 1931 a founding faculty member of the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. In 1966, he became the first Dean of the Louisiana State University School of Medicine at Shreveport...
, who was among those who treated Long and who would later become the first Dean of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport is the academic center for medicine and medical research in North Louisiana. It is located in Shreveport and is part of the Louisiana State University System. The medical school opened in 1969. One of its founders was Dr. Joe E...
. Hull, who had by then retired to his native Pascagoula
Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, as a part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. The population was 26,200 at the 2000 census...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, claimed that the wound was so severe that Long could not be healed. Hull also said that he should have pressed more forcefully for an autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
to settle lingering doubts about the assassination and demise of the Louisiana political icon.
Scholarly honors
Williams was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1957 and was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Queen's CollegeThe Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
of Oxford University in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
from 1966-1967. He was president of the Southern Historical Association from 1958–1959 and of the Organization of American Historians
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...
from 1972-1973.
Williams guest lectured at more than fifty colleges in the United States and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. He participated in countless Civil War Roundtables. In 1964, he received the Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
Award in Civil War History. During his career, Williams was honored with Doctor of Law recognition from Northland College
Northland College (Wisconsin)
Northland College is a small, coeducational, liberal arts college in Ashland, Wisconsin, USA. Founded as the North Wisconsin Academy in 1892, the college was established in 1906. Originally affiliated with the Congregational Church, the college remains loosely tied to the Congregational Church's...
(1953); a Guggenheim Fellow (1957); Doctor of Letters from Bradley University
Bradley University
Bradley University, founded in 1897, is a private, co-educational university located in Peoria, Illinois. It is a small institution with an enrollment of approximately 6,100 undergraduate and postgraduate students and a full-time faculty of approximately 350....
in Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
, Illinois (1959); Harmsworth Professor of American History, Queen's College
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
, Oxford, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(1966–1967), and Doctor of Humane Letters from Loyola University
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
and Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
, both in New Orleans, in 1974 and 1979, respectively.
On Williams' death, the LSU Board of Supervisors established the T. Harry Williams Chair of American History. There is also the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History and the T. Harry Williams Scholarship at LSU. Professor Mark T. Carleton
Mark T. Carleton
Mark Thomas Carleton , was an historian who specialized in political studies of his native Louisiana. From 1964 until his death at the age of sixty, he was a professor at Louisiana State University in his native Baton Rouge.Carleton received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957 from Yale University...
was among those who worked with Williams in establishing the oral history center.
Williams was a mentor to many historians, including Charles P. Roland
Charles P. Roland
Charles Pierce Roland is an American historian and professor emeritus of the University of Kentucky whose research specialty is in the fields of the American South and the Civil War.-Biographical sketch:...
, who spent the bulk of his academic career at Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
and the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
.
Full classes
A stimulating lecturer who attracted the interest of non-history majors, Williams routinely taught overflow numbers of attentive students in auditorium-sized classrooms. He was said to have been a stern taskmaster but effective mentor to several generations of graduate students aspiring to be professional historians. Harold B. McSween, then a young EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
major from Alexandria, recalled having visited Williams' lectures without being enrolled in the course, for he wanted inspiration and not college credit and the requirement to take notes:
"In contrast to the general run of lecturer, who might read from a sheaf of tattered pages in a monologue or employ distracting bombast—or make failed attempts at humor, a driven Williams would engage his auditors with rapid-fire volleys in a conversational voice off the cuff without lectern, text, or notes. He knew what he wanted to say, and he said it without missing a beat. He used simple declaratory sentences with hardly a dependent clause and no filler-type utterances such as 'uh', 'as it were', or 'you know'. If transcribed, his fast 50-minute expositions might have required twice the pages of those of others, so much ground he covered."
Books
Williams wrote more than twenty scholarly books, co-authored (with Richard Current and Frank FreidelFrank Freidel
Frank Freidel was the first major biographer of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and one of the first scholars to work in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Papers at Hyde Park, New York...
) a standard textbook still utilized in American history survey courses, edited seven works, and published more than 40 articles and some 325 book reviews.
Other acclaimed works included: Lincoln and the Radicals (1941), P.G.T. Beauregard, Napoleon in Gray (1955), Romance and Realism in Southern Politics (1961), McClellan, Sherman, and Grant (1962), Americans at War: The American Military System, and, posthumously, History of American Wars (1981) and The Selected Essays of T. Harry Williams (1983). He also wrote the foreword of John D. Winters
John D. Winters
John David Winters was a historian at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, best known for his definitive and award-winning study, The Civil War in Louisiana, still in print, published in 1963 and released in paperback in 1991.-Background:Winters was born to John David Winters, Sr...
' The Civil War in Louisana (1963).
Family life
On December 26, 1952, Williams wed the former Estelle Skolfield (1908–1999) of Baton Rouge, herself an LSU English professor. Estelle received a bachelor of scienceBachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree from LSU in business administration and procured a master's in English. She joined the LSU faculty in 1938 and taught freshman composition and grammar for twenty-five years. The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History established the Estelle Skolfield Williams Graduate Assistantship in her honor, a reflection of her work in helping her husband record oral interviews for the book Huey Long.
T. Harry Williams adopted Estelle's adult daughter, Mai Frances Lower (born 1929), who subsequently married John Jones Doles, Jr.
John J. Doles
John Jones Doles, Sr. , was a banker in Plain Dealing in northern Bossier Parish who served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1952 to 1956, the tenure corresponding with the administration of Governor Robert F. Kennon...
(1923–2004), of Plain Dealing
Plain Dealing, Louisiana
Plain Dealing is a town in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States best known as the birthplace of former U.S. Representative Joe D. Waggonner, Jr. The population was 1,071 at the 2000 census...
, a member of a prominent Bossier Parish family who in 1982-1983 served as president of the Louisiana Bankers Association. Doles was the only child of John Jones Doles, Sr.
John J. Doles
John Jones Doles, Sr. , was a banker in Plain Dealing in northern Bossier Parish who served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1952 to 1956, the tenure corresponding with the administration of Governor Robert F. Kennon...
, of Plain Dealing, who served in the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
from 1952-1956. John and Mai Doles had four daughters, whom Williams considered his own granddaughters. Mai Doles, Williams's only surviving heir, is retired in Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
.
Professor Williams died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
less than two months after his retirement from the LSU faculty. At the time of his passing, he had already completed significant research and written two chapters of a pending biography of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
.
Harry and Estelle Williams are interred at Roselawn Cemetery in Baton Rouge.
In 1998, Williams was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, highlights the careers of more than a hundred of the state’s leading politicians and political journalists. Because three governors, Huey P. Long, Jr., Oscar K...
in Winnfield
Winnfield, Louisiana
Winnfield is a city in and the parish seat of Winn Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,749 at the 2000 census. It has long been associated with the Long faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party and was home to three governors of Louisiana.-Geography:Winnfield is located at ...
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