Bruce Mazlish (September 15, 1923 – November 27, 2016) was an American historian who was a professor in the Department of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In this way, Mazlish stumbled onto the path of the academic world, teaching history for two years at the University of Maine, Brunswick campus, and then completing advanced degrees at Columbia University in literature (MA thesis: “Defoe: Criminologist,” 1947) and then a Ph.D in Modern European History, where he worked mainly under Professors Shepherd Clough and Jacques Barzun (thesis on “Burke, Bonald and De Maistre: A Study in Conservative Thought”, 1955).
He also wrote psychohistorical biographies on Richard Nixon (written at the time of the Watergate hearings, and receiving wide popular attention and acclaim), Henry Kissinger, and James and John Stuart Mill.
His articles appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as History and Theory, American Historical Review, Historically Speaking, and New Global Studies,[5] as well as periodicals for a more general audience, including Book Review Digest, Center Magazine, Encounter, The Nation, The New Republic, New York Magazine, and The Wilson Quarterly.
In 1969 he was instrumental in the establishment of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History,[8][9] helping to secure its financial and institutional footing, and serving on its Board of Advisors from its founding until his death.
[13][14] The academy funded a project examining the feasibility of psychohistory; Mazlish was a primary investigator, along with Erik Erikson, Philip Rieff, Robert Lifton, and others.
[15][16][17] In 1972-73 Mazlish was a recipient of a Social Science Research Council Faculty Fellowship and made a Visiting Member of the Institute for Advanced Study.
[21][22] Mazlish served on the Scholars Council for the Kluge Prize of the Library of Congress,[23] 2000-2003, and on the governing board of the Rockefeller Archive Center, 1999-2005.
[26] Mazlish was married to Neva Goodwin, daughter of David Rockefeller, an economist and co-director of the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University, with whom he published and edited several works.