author
Joseph Schafer
1867–1941
A pioneering historian of the Pacific Northwest and Wisconsin, he helped shape how regional and local history were studied in the early 20th century. His work brought scholarly rigor to subjects that had often been treated as scattered local stories.
1 Audiobook
The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin
by Joseph Schafer
About the author
Born in Wisconsin in 1867, Joseph Schafer studied under influential historian Frederick Jackson Turner and went on to become the first academically trained historian in Oregon. He chaired the history department at the University of Oregon from 1900 to 1920, where he built a reputation for serious, research-based regional history.
Schafer is especially remembered for writing A History of the Pacific Northwest, a book that became a standard account of the region for many years. After his Oregon period, he returned to Wisconsin and led the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, while continuing to write about agriculture, immigration, and local history.
His career bridged university scholarship and public history. By treating local and regional subjects as worthy of careful study, he helped broaden what American historians considered important.