Gordon Craig, 91, Stanford professor, expert on Germany
LOS ANGELES -- Gordon A. Craig, considered America's dean of German historians and a respected professor at Stanford University, has died. He was 91.
Dr. Craig, perhaps best known for his books ''Germany" and ''The Germans," died Oct. 30 of heart failure at the Sequoias, a nursing facility in Portola Valley, Calif., Stanford officials announced.
The prolific writer and educator was described as ''the most distinguished historian of modern Germany in this country and possibly one of the greatest in the world" by his colleague Peter Stansky, also a retired Stanford professor of history, in a statement released by Stanford officials.
''He was among a handful of people in the late '50s and early '60s who . . . helped elevate Stanford from a good local university to a great national university," added James Sheehan, the university's Dickason professor in the humanities.
Author of a dozen books on Germany and editor of many more, Dr. Craig concentrated on writing after retiring from Stanford and became a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. Politicians and the news media also consulted him on changes in modern Germany, including the nation's reunification in 1990.
In reviewing Dr. Craig's ''Germany: 1866-1945" for The
Loewenberg praised Dr. Craig's ''deft and intelligent handling" of historic material and concluded, ''Altogether this is the best contemporary statement of modern German history in the classical mode."
When ''The Germans," something of a companion volume about the character of its people, was published in 1982, it received nominations for the Los Angeles Times history prize and the American Book Award in history.
Dr. Craig also earned positive reviews for his 1999 book, ''Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich."
