author
Charles Homer Haskins
1870–1937
A pioneering American medieval historian, he helped bring the Middle Ages into modern scholarly focus. His books on universities, science, and the twelfth-century renaissance opened up medieval Europe for generations of readers.
3 Audiobooks
The Normans in European history
by Charles Homer Haskins
The Rise of Universities
by Charles Homer Haskins
Some Problems of the Peace Conference
by Charles Homer Haskins, Robert Howard Lord
About the author
Born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1870, Charles Homer Haskins became one of the most important early American scholars of medieval Europe. He studied at Johns Hopkins University, earned his PhD at a remarkably young age, and went on to teach at Wisconsin before building a major career at Harvard.
Haskins is often described as the first professional medieval historian in the United States. His research reshaped how readers understood the Middle Ages, especially through work on Norman institutions, medieval learning, and the revival of culture and scholarship in the twelfth century. Among his best-known books are The Rise of Universities, Studies in the History of Medieval Science, and The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.
He also moved beyond the classroom. Haskins advised President Woodrow Wilson and took part in work connected with the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1937, leaving a legacy strong enough that the Medieval Academy of America later named its Haskins Medal in his honor.