"To Harvard undergraduates of American history, the most memorable father figure was Frederick Merk, the leading historian of the western frontier and of the Texas Annexation Controversy of thee mid-1840s. The Elderly "Mr. Merk", as everyone called him, lectured in the survey course in American history. For dense presentation of meticulously organized facts -- and for insistence that every spoken detail be perpetuated in student notebooks and replicated in final exam blue books -- Mr. Merk may still hold the all-time record."[1]
[1] William W. Freehling, The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War (1994), page 111.
Wife: Lois Bannister
University: BA, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1911)
University: PhD, Harvard University
Professor: Harvard University (1921-56)
Massachusetts Historical Society
Author of books:
Economic History of Wisconsin During the Civil War Decade (1916, economics)
Albert Gallatin and the Oregon Problem: A Study in Anglo-American Diplomacy (1950, international affairs)
Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation (1963, history)
The Monroe Doctrine and American Expansionism, 1843-1849 (1966, history)
The Oregon Question: Essays in Anglo-American Diplomacy and Politics (1967, history)
Slavery and the Annexation of Texas (1972, history)
History of the Westward Movement (1978, history)
