Чарльз Брюс Кэттон: Жизнь и творчество историка Гражданской войны.

U. S. historian, author, and journalist

Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring interesting characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses. His books were researched well and included footnotes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1954 for his book A Stillness at Appomattox (1953),

Charles Bruce Catton was born in Petoskey, Michigan, to George R. and Adela M. (Patten) Catton, and raised in Benzonia, Michigan. His father was a Congregationalist minister, who accepted a teaching position in Benzonia Academy and later became the academy's headmaster. As a boy, Catton first heard the reminiscences of the aged veterans who had fought in the Civil War. In his memoir, Waiting for the Morning Train (1972), Catton explained how their stories made a lasting impression upon him:
[These stories gave] a color and a tone not merely to our village life, but to the concept of life with which we grew up I think I was always subconsciously driven by an attempt to restate that faith and to show where it was properly grounded, how it grew out of what a great many young men on both sides felt and believed and were brave enough to do. During 1916, Catton began attending Oberlin College, but he quit because of World War I without completing a degree.

At the start of World War II, Catton was too old for military service. During 1941, he accepted a position as Director of Information for the War Production Board, and later he had similar jobs in the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior. His experiences as a federal employee prepared him to write his first book, The War Lords Of Washington, during 1948. Although the book was not a commercial success, it inspired Catton to quit federal employment to become a full time author. In 1954, Catton accepted the position as founding editor of the new magazine American Heritage. and a National Book Award for Nonfiction. Oliver Jensen, who succeeded Catton as editor of American Heritage, wrote that "No one ever wrote American history with more easy grace, beauty and emotional power, or greater understanding of its meaning, than Bruce Catton There is a near magic power of imagination in Catton’s work [that] almost seemed to project him physically onto the battlefields, along the dusty roads and to the campfires of another age." American writer Gore Vidal criticized Catton for a hagiographic approach to writing about prominent Americans of the past, calling him "that ubiquitous clone of Parson Weems." Vidal groups Catton with American historians who "never accept as a fact anything that might obscure those figures illuminated by the high noon of Demos " As an example, he cites Catton's dismissal of stories related to Grant's alcohol consumption during the Civil War and places Catton "in Parson Weems land where all our presidents were good and some were great and none ever served out his term without visibly growing in office."

On August 16, 1925, Catton married Hazel H. Cherry. During 1926, they had a son, William Bruce Catton, who taught history at Princeton University and at Middlebury College, Vermont, where he was the first Charles A. Dana Professor of History.

Bruce Catton died in a hospital near his summer home at Frankfort, Michigan, after a respiratory illness. He was buried in Benzonia Township Cemetery in Benzie County, Michigan. During 1977, the year before his death, Catton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's greatest civilian honor, from President Gerald R. Ford, who noted that the author and historian "made us hear the sounds of battle and cherish peace." Of the many Civil War historians, Catton was arguably the most prolific and popular. Oliver Jensen, who succeeded him as editor of the magazine American Heritage, wrote:
Blockquote|No one ever wrote American history with more easy grace, beauty and emotional power, or greater understanding of its meaning, than Bruce Catton. There is a near magic power of imagination in Catton's work that seemed to project him physically into the battlefields, along the dusty roads and to the campfires of another age.

Since 1984, the Bruce Catton Prize was awarded for lifetime achievement in the writing of history. In cooperation with American Heritage Publishing Company, the Society of American Historians during 1984 initiated the biennial prize that honors an entire body of work. It is named for Bruce Catton, prizewinning historian and first editor of American Heritage magazine. The prize consisted of a certificate and $2,500. The prize was awarded to Dumas Malone (1984), C. Vann Woodward (1986), Richard B. Morris (1988), Henry Steele Commager (1990), Edmund S. Morgan (1992), John Hope Franklin (1994), Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1996), Richard N. Current (1998), Bernard Bailyn (2000), Gerda Lerner (2002), David Brion Davis (2004), and David Herbert Donald (2006).

The War Lords of Washington. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Co., 1948. U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954. This Hallowed Ground. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1956. America Goes to War. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1958. The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. New York: American Heritage Publishing, 1960 (republished as The Civil War without the pictures by Mariner Books in 2004 and with an introduction by author James M. McPherson). The American Heritage Short History of the Civil War. New York: American Heritage Publishing, 1960. Michigan's Past and the Nation's Future. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1960
Four Days: The Historical Record Of The Death Of President Kennedy. New York: American Heritage Publishing, 1964. Prefaces to History. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1970
Waiting for the Morning Train. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1972. Gettysburg: The Final Fury. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1974. Michigan: A Bicentennial History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1976. Bruce Catton's America: Selections from His Greatest Works. New York: American Heritage, 1979
Reflections on the Civil War. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1981
Shiloh. Boston: New Word City, 2017. Missionary Ridge. Boston: New Word City, 2017.

Mr. Lincoln's Army. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1951. Glory Road. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1952. A Stillness at Appomattox. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1953.

The Coming Fury. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1961. Terrible Swift Sword. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1963. Never Call Retreat. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1965.

Grant Moves South. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1960. Grant Takes Command. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969. Note: These two volumes are sequels to historian Lloyd Lewis's posthumously published Captain Sam Grant (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950.)

Two Roads to Sumter. New York: McGraw Hill, 1963. The Bold & Magnificent Dream: America's Founding Years, 1492–1815. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1978.

Banners at Shenandoah: A Story of Sheridan's Fighting Cavalry. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1955.