James Harvey Robinson

Historian, born in Bloomington, Illinois, USA. He studied at Harvard University (1887 BA;1888 MA) and received his doctorate in Germany, then taught European history at Columbia University (1895–1919), where his espousal of ‘intellectual history’ greatly influenced students of the day. He collaborated on textbooks with Charles Beard and James Breasted and helped found the New School for Social Research (1919–21). His popular Mind in the Making (1921) displays his innovative historical methodology, emphasizing the development of human understanding as opposed to conventional political and economic events.

James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863–February 16, 1936) was an American historian.

In 1919, he was one of the founders of the New School for Social Research, of which he was the first director. Through his writings and lectures, in which he stressed the "new history" — the social, scientific, and intellectual progress of humanity rather than merely political happenings — he exerted an important influence on the study and teaching of history. An editor (1892–95) of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, he was also an associate editor (1912–20) of the American Historical Review and president (1929) of the American Historical Association.