Goodbye Arthur

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the historian whose more than 20 books shaped discussions for two generations about America’s past, and who himself was a provocative, unabashedly liberal partisan, most notably in serving in the Kennedy White House, died last night in Manhattan. He was 89.

The cause was a heart attack, said Mr. Schlesinger’s son Stephen. He died at New York Downtown Hospital after being stricken in a restaurant. He was dinning out at a notable steakhouse.

Twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Mr. Schlesinger exhaustively examined the administrations of two prominent presidents, Andrew Jackson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, against a vast background of regional and economic rivalries. He strongly argued that strong individuals like Jackson and Roosevelt could bend history.

Being an American liberal, Schlesinger once observed, means regarding man as "neither brute nor angel." He has long condemned both the far right and the far left, any system that denies the "perpetual tension" of a dynamic democracy. Whether discussing war, communism or the power of the presidency, Schlesinger has pursued the middle course, where experience coexists with ideals and reason counteracts emotion. Most obits are omitting that Dr. Schlesinger was also a film reviewer for Vogue from 1967-1972.