Howard Lamar, North Haven, Connecticut: an interview by Greg Smoak, 23 October 2012

Transcript (14 pages) of an interview by Greg Smoak with Howard Roberts Lamar at North Haven, Connecticut, on 22 October 2012. Part of the Western History Association Oral History Project, Everett Cooley Collection tape no. U-3181

Howard Lamar (b. 1923), Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale and 1972 president of the Western History Association, remembers his career at Yale and involvement in the Western History Association, and shares his thoughts on the state of Western History and directions the Association might take. Dr. Lamar, a Southerner who went North to do Western history, mentored a number of the major voices in the field including William Cronon, Patricia Nelson Limerick, and Philip DeLoria. A friend of historian Ray Allen Billington, Lamar emphasizes Billington´s importance in giving Western history an aura of legitimacy in the East that it had previously lacked. Emphasizing the need to reach out to amateur historians and the public, he remembers his role as a mediator in the Association, especially between the older generation and the New Western History´s proponents. Project: Western History Association. Interviewer: Greg Smoak.