author
James Westfall Thompson
1869–1941
A leading American historian of medieval and early modern Europe, he wrote widely on the Holy Roman Empire, France, and the world of books and libraries in the Middle Ages. His work helped bring scholarly European history to a broad English-speaking audience.
1 Audiobook
The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II
by James Westfall Thompson
About the author
Born in Pella, Iowa, on June 3, 1869, he studied at Rutgers and spent most of his academic career at the University of Chicago, where he rose from assistant in history to professor of medieval history. From 1932 until his retirement in 1939, he taught at the University of California, Berkeley.
His scholarship focused on medieval and early modern Europe, especially the Holy Roman Empire and France. He is also remembered for writing about literacy, libraries, and the medieval book trade, showing a lasting interest not just in politics and religion, but in how knowledge was preserved and shared.
He served as president of the American Historical Association, and his presidential address was published after his death in 1941. Today he is remembered as a careful, wide-ranging historian whose books helped shape the study of European history in American universities.