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Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr. papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS2280-UA

Scope and Contents

The Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr. papers consist of approximately 1400 letters, documents, and emails ranging in date from 1960 to 2011, with the bulk dating between 1970 and 1995. The correspondence is predominately professional, and includes substantive letters from noted historians, including but not restricted to, Jacques Godechot, R. R. Palmer, Francois Furet, Albert Soboul, Pierre Chaunu, Dominique Julia, Sergio Moravia, James M. Billington, Rudolph Binion, Crane Brinton, C.G. Gillispie, Lawrence Stone, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Keith M. Baker. The collection contains a substantial portion of correspondence from academics, students, administrators and publishers. The correspondence includes letters relating to European history and research projects, academic issues, publishing issues, and personal correspondence with friends and family. There are also lecture notes and publications and reprints all relating to Dr. Kennedy's scholarly work.

Dates

  • Creation: 1960-2011
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1970 - 1995

Language of Materials

Some correspondence is in French.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Biographical / Historical

Dr. Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr. was a professor (Emeritus as of 2011) of European History at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kennedy received his Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. from Brandeis in French history. Before coming to GW in 1973, he taught at Kent State University and at the University of Toulouse in France. His teaching and publications have focused on the History of France, especially the French Revolution, and European intellectual history. He has published five books, among them, "A Philosophe in the Age of Revolution: Destutt de Tracy and the Origins of 'Ideology'" (American Philosophical Society, 1978) and "A Cultural History of the French Revolution" (Yale, 1989), "Secularism and its opponents from Augustine to Solzhenitsyn" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2006) and co-authored "Theatre, Opera and Audiences in Revolutionary Paris" (Greenwood, 1996) and co-edited The Shaping of Modern France: Writings on French History since 1715 Introd. by Crane Brinton (MacMillan, 1969). He is a former fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and a Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellow in 1983-84. He was nominated for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and was listed in the New York Times Book Review’s Editors’ Choices in July, 1989 for his Cultural History of the French Revolution. He was a nominee for the G.W.Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching in 1997 and served several years as a consultant to the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize Committee. Dr. Kennedy received the 1977-78 ACLS Fellowship and the Earhart Foundation Fellowship, 2007-2008.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (6 document boxes)

Abstract

Dr. Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr. is a professor of European History at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. His teaching and publications have focused on the History of France, especially the French Revolution, and European intellectual history. The Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr. papers consist of correspondence dating from 1960 to 2011, with the bulk dating between 1970 and 1995. The correspondence is predominately professional, and includes substantive letters from noted historians, including Jacques Godechot and R. R. Palmer. The correspondence includes letters relating to European history and research projects, academic issues, publishing issues, and personal correspondence with friends and family.

Arrangement

Organized into 3 series: Correspondence, Lecture notes, and Publications, reprints, and interviews.

Physical Location

Materials may be stored off-site, and may require additional retrieval time. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Dr. Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr., December 30, 2009, (2010.001) and December 6, 2011 (2011.081), March 17, 2012 (2012.034)

Title
Guide to the Robert Emmet Kennedy, Jr. papers, 1960-2011
Status
Completed
Author
Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University
Date
2011
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Repository

Contact:
George Washington University Gelman Library
2130 H Street NW
Washington DC 20052 United States of America