Carl Stephenson (1886–1954) at the time of his death was regarded as one of America's foremost medieval scholars.
[1] His greatest joy came from demonstrating that a tax, a commune, or seignorialism and feudalism were not peculiar to one area but were common to all western Europe.
For fifteen years Carl Stephenson regularly published articles in the leading historical journals of America, England, Belgium, and France and established himself as an authority on taxation, representative assemblies, and the origin of urban institutions.
His book, Medieval History: Europe from the Fourth to the Sixteenth Century, was for decades one of the most widely used textbooks in the field.
[2] He co-edited Sources of English Constitutional History with his Cornell colleague Frederick Marcham;[3] the work is still considered a monumental achievement.