Edward Channing's A History of the United States has provided him with a secure place in historical literature. He was the last of the historians, such as George Bancroft and John Bach McMaster, who attempted to write a comprehensive history of the United States, and his project stands as the only such work which even came close to completion.

A product of New England, Channing never left his beloved Harvard and was renowned as both a scholar and teacher. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in June 1856, Edward Perkins Channing descended from an illustrious New England family which traced its lineage far back into New England history. His father, William Ellery Channing, was a well-known poet of the Concord School. Channing's mother, Ellen Fuller Channing, a sister of Margaret Fuller, died when he was seven months old. Shortly after his mother's death, he was turned over to a nurse and...