Gunther Barth

Gunther Paul Barth
Born	January 10, 1925 Düsseldorf, Germany
Died	January 7, 2004 Berkeley, California, U.S.
Nationality	German American
Alma mater	University of Cologne University of Oregon Harvard University
Occupation	Historian of the American West
Employer	University of California, Berkeley

Gunther Paul Barth (January 10, 1925 in Düsseldorf – January 7, 2004 in Berkeley) was an American historian. Barth joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty in 1962, and taught Western American and urban history until his retirement in 1995. During his career, he became professor of history in 1971.

Early life

Gunther Barth was born in 1925 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He attended local schools in Düsseldorf until he was 16 years of age, after which World War II was well underway, and he was drafted into the military. He fought on several fronts, was wounded twice, and captured by British forces.

After the war, and out of the army, he worked as a journalist in Düsseldorf until 1951. During two of those years he studied literature and art history at the University of Cologne; he also won a year-long fellowship, awarded by the U.S. State Department, which enabled him to study at the University of Oregon. After another year in Cologne, he returned to the United States, worked in New York City in construction and, for a short time, as a nightclub bouncer. By 1957, armed with an A.B. and an M.A. from the University of Oregon, he felt ready for doctoral work in history and entered Harvard University. Studying for five years, Barth was awarded a Ph.D. for his work in 1962.

Career

Barth published in 1959 his Oregon master’s thesis, “All Quiet on the Yamhill: The Civil War in Oregon,” and in 1964 his Harvard doctoral thesis, “Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1850-1870,” which appealed both to academics as well as to mainstream readers. Barth’s other books included: “The Age of Industrialization in America” in 1968; “Instant Cities” in 1975; and “City People” in 1980. A Los Angeles Times reviewer called the 1980 book “a valuable example of street-level history,” and a New York Times reviewer pronounced it “rather like an old Cecil B. De Mille spectacular, only much better.”

Barth not only won acclaim for his books but he also became famous as an academic teacher who impressed his students with his stupendous memory and his dry humor. Twice he was a Fulbright professor at the University of Cologne and once at the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Death

Barth died on January 7, 2004, in Berkeley, California.

Works

• All Quiet on the Yamhill: The Civil War in Oregon, 1959
• Bitter Strength: A History of the Chinese in the United States, 1964
• The Age of Industrialization in America, 1968
• Instant Cities, 1975
• City People, 1980
• Fleeting Moments, 1990

External links

• Biography at UC Berkeley