Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Norman A. Graebner, Accession #12758, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The papers were the gift of Norman A. Graebner, 2003 October 13.

Biographical and Historical Information

Norman A. Graebner was the Edward R. Stettinius Professor of History and the Randolph P. Compton Professor of Foreign Affairs and Public Affairs Emeritus of the University of Virginia. He was also a recipient of the university's highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award. He is an internationally acknowledged authority on United States and American diplomacy. He is the author, co-author, and editor of more than thirty books, one hundred and thirty articles, and essays including Empire on the Pacific: A Study in American Continental Expansion (1955, 1983), Foundations of American Foreign Policy: A Realist Appraisal from Franklin to McKinley (1985), and America as a World Power: A Realist Appraisal from Wilson to Reagan (1984). His first of eight books, Empire on the Pacific, published in 1955, remains the seminal study of America_s 19th century push westward. Among his other books are The New Isolationism (1956); Cold War Diplomacy (1962, 2nd ed., 1977); Ideas and Diplomacy (1964); The Age of Global Power (1979); America as a World Power (1984); and Foundations of American Policy (1985). He is co-author of History of the United States (2 vols., 1970); History of the American People (1970, 2nd ed.); and Recent United States History (1972). He served 30 years as a contributing editor of Current History.

Professor Graebner received his bachelor's degree from Milwaukee State Teachers College (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) in 1939, his M.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1940, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949. In addition, he holds an M.A. from Oxford University as well as six honorary degrees.

During the four decades before his retirement from the University of Virginia in 1986 he taught at Iowa State University, and the University of Illinois (where he was chairman of the history department, 1961-63). He also taught for one year each at Stanford University, the United States Military Academy, University of Oxford and Penn State University. He received the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship at Oxford University, and was a member of American Historians, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He was an associate member of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois (1960-1961) and the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Study (1967- 1969). During 1963 he served as Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He also worked at the University of Sydney (1983), and the University of Heidelberg (1998-1999). In 1985 he was the Thomas Jefferson Visiting Scholar at Downing College, Cambridge University. He has lectured at two hundred colleges and universities in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. His chief interest is U.S. foreign policy.

Scope and Content

Professor Emeritus, Norman A. Graebner, was a member of the University of Virginia faculty from 1967-1986 as an honorary professor of history and foreign affairs. The collection consists chiefly of press summaries from the United States Information Service from 1958 to 1962. The collection consists of about 1,123 items, two Hollinger boxes and 1 linear foot.

Arrangement

The collection is organized by date.