My friend Phil Curtin died a couple of weeks ago. William Grimes published one of his characteristically nicely researched and written obits in The New York Times yesterday, accompanied by a nice photograph that was probably taken by his wife, Anne. Phil was 87 at the time of his death, and his health had been quite poor for the last couple of years. Still, it is hard to lose Phil.
Adria and I have been close to Phil and Anne since those years in the 1960s when we all lived in Madison, where Phil and I taught in the history department of the University of Wisconsin. I was then an altogether obscure assistant professor of early American history, but Phil was already a genuine titan. He was, above all, one of the pioneers of serious African history â?? one of those who studied Africa in context rather than as an emanation of European imperialism. He collaborated with Jan Vansina in those years to produce an entirely new school of African history, the most important in the world.