Jesse Macy (June 21, 1842 – November 2, 1919) was an
American political scientist and
historian of the late 19th and early 20th century, specializing in the history of
American political parties,
party systems, and the
Civil War. He spent most of his professional career at his
alma mater,
Grinnell College.
Jesse Macy, the thirteenth of fourteen children, was born to
Quaker parents in
Indiana, but the family moved to central
Iowa in 1856 and started farming outside
Lynnville, near the newly-founded town of
Grinnell. At age 17, he entered
Iowa College, now Grinnell College. During the
Civil War, he served in the
Union army and he did not graduate until after the war, earning an
A.B. in 1870.
During the 1870s, Macy started what would become a long-term correspondence with
James Bryce, a noted British jurist and politician. In 1884, he completed his
Ph.D. at
Johns Hopkins University. The next year, he returned to the Midwest to take a professorship at
Iowa College. For the next forty-two years, Macy taught history and political science at the college.Macy, Jesse.
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