John McCardell Jr.

Last updated
John McCardell Jr.
BornJune 17, 1949
Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater Washington and Lee University
Harvard University
Occupation(s)Historian, academic administrator
Employer Sewanee: The University of the South

John Malcolm McCardell Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is an American historian and academic administrator. On June 17, 2020, he stepped down as the Vice-Chancellor and President of Sewanee: The University of the South, where he will remain a history professor.

Contents

Early life

McCardell was born on June 17, 1949, in Maryland. [1] He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1971. He earned a PhD in History from Harvard University in 1976. For his dissertation, The Idea of a Southern Nation, he was awarded the 1977 Allan Nevins Prize by the Society of American Historians. [2]

Academic career

McCardell joined the History department at Middlebury College in 1976. [1] He served as the university president from 1992 to 2004. [1] An anonymous donor of $50 million in the spring of 2004 asked that Middlebury's science center, Bicentennial Hall, be renamed John M. McCardell Jr. Bicentennial Hall. McCardell taught History at Middlebury College from 2004 to 2010.

McCardell Bicentennial Hall at Middlebury College. McCardellBicentennialHall.jpg
McCardell Bicentennial Hall at Middlebury College.

McCardell served as Vice-Chancellor of Sewanee: The University of the South from 2010 until June 17, 2020. He continues as a professor of history at the University. [1]

Lowering the drinking age

McCardell is the founder and director of Choose Responsibility, an organization dedicated to exploring and advocating the lowering of the legal drinking age to 18 and issuing drinking learner permits to adults age 18, 19, and 20 in an effort to promote responsible consumption. He authored an op-ed in The New York Times in 2004 saying, "the 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law". [3] He later spearheaded the creation of the Amethyst Initiative, a statement of over 120 college presidents across the United States calling for reconsideration of drinking age laws. [4]

Personal life

McCardell has a wife, Bonnie Greenwald, and two sons. [1]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Steele Commager</span> American historian

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middlebury College</span> Private college in Middlebury, Vermont, US

Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,773 undergraduates from all 50 states and 74 countries and offers 45 majors in the arts and humanities as well as joint engineering programs. In addition to its undergraduate liberal arts program, the school also has graduate schools, the Middlebury College Language Schools, the Bread Loaf School of English, and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, as well as its C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad international programs. It is among the Little Ivies, an unofficial group of academically selective liberal arts colleges, mostly in the northeastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan Nevins</span> American historian and journalist (1890–1971)

Joseph Allan Nevins was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller, as well as his public service. He was a leading exponent of business history and oral history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sewanee: The University of the South</span> Liberal arts university in Sewanee, Tennessee

The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee, is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary of the church. The university's School of Letters offers graduate degrees in American Literature and Creative Writing. The campus consists of 13,000 acres (53 km2) of scenic mountain property atop the Cumberland Plateau, with the developed portion occupying about 1,000 acres (4.0 km2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Minimum Drinking Age Act</span> 1984 U.S. law which indirectly raised the nationwide minimum drinking age to 21

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed by the United States Congress and was later signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984. The act would punish any state that allowed persons under 21 years to purchase alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by 10 percent. The law was later amended, lowering the penalty to 8 percent from fiscal year 2012 and beyond.

A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcohol consumption by youth in the United States</span> Alcohol consumption by individuals under the age of 18 in the country

Alcohol consumption by youth in the United States of America, also known as underage drinking, is an umbrella term for alcohol consumption by individuals under the age of 18 in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Meacham</span> American journalist and biographer (born 1969)

Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer who is serving as the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral since November 7, 2021. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He is the author of several books. He won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University.

Choose Responsibility is a non-profit organization in the United States, that promotes public awareness of the dangers of excessive and reckless alcohol consumption by young adults. The main goal is to lower the minimum legal drinking age by educating the public. It was founded and is directed by Dr. John McCardell, Jr., president emeritus of Middlebury College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles R. Middleton</span>

Charles R. Middleton served as the President of Roosevelt University from 2002 to 2015 when he retired.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald D. Liebowitz</span>

Ronald D. Liebowitz is the ninth President of Brandeis University succeeding Frederick M. Lawrence. Formerly Middlebury College's 16th President, and a professor of geography, succeeding John McCardell, Jr. on July 1, 2004. On December 17, 2015, it was announced that Liebowitz would become the ninth president of Brandeis University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youth rights</span> Equal rights movement

The youth rights movement seeks to grant the rights to young people that are traditionally reserved for adults, due to having reached a specific age or sufficient maturity. This is closely akin to the notion of evolving capacities within the children's rights movement, but the youth rights movement differs from the children's rights movement in that the latter places emphasis on the welfare and protection of children through the actions and decisions of adults, while the youth rights movement seeks to grant youth the liberty to make their own decisions autonomously in the ways adults are permitted to, or to lower the legal minimum ages at which such rights are acquired, such as the age of majority and the voting age.

The Amethyst Initiative is an organization made up of U.S. college presidents and chancellors that, in July 2008, launched a movement calling for the reconsideration of U.S. legal drinking age, particularly the minimum age of 21.

William Wilhartz Freehling is an American historian, and Singletary Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the University of Kentucky.

Samuel Ruthven Williamson Jr. is an American historian. He was President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of the South (Sewanee),. He is the author of numerous books including Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War (1991).

Youth in the United States can be regarded as one age group in the demographics of the United States. In 2010 it was estimated that 20.2% of the population of the United States were 0–14 years old.

<i>Smog</i> (1/3)

Smog is a public artwork by American artist Tony Smith located to the south east of McCardell Bicentennial Hall on the Middlebury College campus, in Middlebury, Vermont. An example of minimalist sculpture, the piece is a lattice of 45 octahedra, standing on 22 tetrahedra, and topped with 15 prisms. It is fabricated from aluminum, painted black. This work is first in an edition of three, with one artist's proof.

The Society of American Historians, founded in 1939, encourages and honors literary distinction in the writing of history and biography about American topics. The approximately 300 members include professional historians, independent scholars, journalists, film and documentary makers, novelists, poets, and biographers, all of whom were selected for membership based on the literary excellence as well as the intellectual strength of their writing or presentation of American history.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "John M. McCardell Jr". Sewanee: The University of the South. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  2. "Allan Nevins Prize - Past Winners". Society of American Historians. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  3. New York Times Op Ed
  4. "Choose Responsibility announces Amethyst Initiative". Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
Preceded by President of Middlebury College
1991–2004
Succeeded by