Philip D. Curtin, a historian of the African slave trade who after World War II was a leading figure in reviving the neglected field of African history, has died. He was 87.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Curtin applied more rigorous and scholarly methods to the study of the slave trade and brought the topic to the attention of a wider academic audience. He published more than a dozen books and co-founded the department of African languages and literature at the University of Wisconsin, which the American Historical Assn. said was the first in the United States.