Regrets

Donald's stay at Harvard has not been without its frustrations, however, and he says he does not agree with his department's tenure policy.

"My largest regret at Harvard is that we did not treat younger people in the History Department as well as they ought to have been treated," Donald says. "A number should have been promoted, which would have added great strength and luster to the department."

Donald says the loss of several former junior scholars, including Alan Brinkley, Drew R. McCoy and Catherine Clinton can be attributed to an "absence of firm leadership on the part of the administration that allowed the History Department to make very serious mistakes."

But Donald sees the appointment of Gienapp last year as a significant break with History's poor record of appointments.

"One good thing has been the appointment of Gienapp. He is a first-rate young political historian who has already done important work on the origins of the Republican Party. He is shaping the way we deal with political history."

Passing the Torch

Donald sees Gienapp as a worthy successor who will continue to teach the Civil War in the History Department. Gienapp was trained by Yale's Michael Holt, one of Donald's former students.

"Gienapp is sort of a grandchild of mine," Donald says. "Both of us are willing to experiment with new methods and to try new approaches to research."

In Donald's view, Gienapp's research method is similar in many ways to his own, yet has certain distinguishing characteristics.

"There are two ways of doing political history," Donald explained. "First, there is the method of focusing on men or ideas, and what they said or did. Second, there is the method of quantified history, which involves closely analyzing voting returns and examining issues received by the electorate. Gienapp bridges these two in a synthesis that is the shape of a new political history. It is very promising."

In his work on the origins of the Republican Party, Gienapp says, he incorporated these two methodssthods. "I moved back and forth from analyzing both the people and the leaders, and argued that both were essential to an understanding of the Republican Party."

Teaching

Looking back on his tenure at Harvard. Donald reports that some of his most positive experiences have been related to the students he has taught.

"In my 18 years at Harvard, I have had some of the best graduate students in the country, who are now leading people in their fields all over the United States," Donald says. "There is hardly a major history department in the country where one of my former students is not the professor of 19th-century American history."

Indeed, Donald says his impact on American history far transcends the confines of Harvard's History Department. "I had wonderful students who were extraordinarily stimulating," Donald says. "They are helping to shape the whole field of 19th century American history."

May agrees that Donald's students over the last half-century can be found throughout the nation's history departments. "For both undergraduates and graduates, Donald is surely one of the most outstanding teachers, not just in the department, but for the University as a whole," May says.

And Donald says teaching undergraduates has offered him new perspectives on his scholarly work. "Undergraduate teaching has helped my research and writing," Donald says. "It's like writing a book, but giving 300 people the chance to offer criticism and suggestions."

And now that his teaching career is ending, Donald will return to full-time writing, taking with him the "criticisms and suggestions" of two generations of students.

I spent most of my life not doing a life of Abraham Lincoln. Most earlier work was around the periphery of Lincoln. It's a very large and complex issue that I was not sure I should tackle.