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Donald Kagan (; May 1, 1932August 6, 2021) was a Lithuanian Jews-born American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University. Kagan was considered among the foremost American scholars of Greek history and is notable for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War.
Known for his prolific research on the Peloponnesian War; Kagan is also famous for his work On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace, a comparative history examining four major conflicts (the Peloponnesian War, World War I, the Second Punic War, and World War II) and one non-conflict (the Cuban Missile Crisis) with the purpose of identifying how and why wars do or do not begin. Remarking in 2015 on the work, Kagan summarized the causes of war by quoting Thucydides: "You know, Thucydides has this great insight. I wish I could get people to pay attention – he has one of his speakers at the beginning of the war say, 'Why do people go to war? Out of fear, honor, and interest.' Well, everybody knows interest, and fear is very credible. Nobody takes honor seriously." Kagan believes honor – better understood as "prestige" – was crucial in beginning World War I, for example.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded Kagan the National Humanities Medal in 2002, and selected him to deliver the 2005 Jefferson Lecture. Kagan titled his lecture "In Defense of History";Donald Kagan, "In Defense of History," text of Jefferson Lecture at NEH website. he argued that history is of primary importance in the study of the humanities.Philip Kennicott, "Yale Historian Donald Kagan, Mixing the Old And the Neo," The Washington Post, May 13, 2005.George F. Will, "History's Higher Ground," The Washington Post, May 19, 2005. In his The New Yorker review, George Steiner said of Kagan's four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War: "The temptation to acclaim Kagan's four volumes as the foremost work of history produced in North America in this century is vivid."
Until his retirement in 2013, Kagan was Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University. His "The Origins of War" was one of Yale's most popular courses for twenty-five years, and was the basis of a book he published in 1995. Over an even longer timespan he taught "Introduction to Ancient Greek History", and upper level History and Classical Civilization seminars focusing on topics from Thucydides to the spartan hegemony.
Kagan died on August 6, 2021, at a retirement home in Washington, D.C. He was 89 years old.
Personal life and family
Kagan married Myrna Dabrusky in 1954. They met while studying at Thomas Jefferson High School together, and remained married for 62 years until her death in 2017. Together, they had two children: Robert Kagan and Frederick Kagan.
Positions held
Works
External links
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Categories: 1932 Births, 2021 Deaths, 20th-century American Historians, 20th-century American Male Writers, 21st-century American Historians, 21st-century American Male Writers, American Classical Scholars, American Male Non-fiction Writers, American Military Historians, American People Of Lithuanian-jewish Descent, Brooklyn College Alumni, Brown University Alumni, Classical Scholars Of Yale University, Connecticut Republicans, Cornell University Department Of History Faculty, Historians From Connecticut, Historians From New York, Hudson Institute, Jewish American Historians, Lithuanian Emigrants To The United States, National Humanities Medal Recipients, Ohio State University College Of Arts And Sciences Alumni, People From Brownsville, Brooklyn, People From Kuršėnai, People From North Haven, Connecticut, Scholars Of Ancient Greek History, Writers From New Haven, Connecticut, Yale Sterling Professors, 21st-century American Jews
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