When David Morris Potter died in 1971, he was president of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians, the two largest associations of professional historians in the United States. His comprehensively researched and exceptionally penetrating books, articles, and lectures on the South, the causes of the Civil War, the American character, the writing of history, and other subjects convinced many of Potter's colleagues that he may have been the greatest American historian of the mid-twentieth century.

Even though much of his work was conceptual in nature, Potter's style of writing was precise and clear. He always defined his terms with great care, rarely used words in excess of three syllables, was neither condescending nor bombastic, and never sought refuge in jargon, although he did utilize some of the terminology of behavioral science. Potter's prose was also refreshingly economical. Many respectable historians would consume a page...