Philip Alexander Bruce (March 7, 1856 – August 16, 1933) was an American historian who specialized in the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[1] Author of over a dozen volumes of history, Bruce's scope ranged from the first Virginia settlements to the early 20th century.
[3] Bruce began a long career as a published historian in 1889 with the publication of The Plantation Negro as a Freeman.
[7] In the last decade of his life, Bruce authored a five-volume history of the first hundred years of the University of Virginia, which is credited for expanding the historical perspective on the talents of Thomas Jefferson,[8] and co-authored a five-volume history of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[9] He is remembered[2] for attempts to raise the consciousness of Northern readers to Virginia's contributions to the history of the United States through a series of letters to the New York Times on such topics as the claim of Virginia's House of Burgesses as the second elected legislature after the British Parliament[10] and the importance of Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.