Paul Johnson, Requiescat in Pace

Paul Johnson is dead at 94.

He contributed to the only United States History survey textbook that I ever found palatable.

It took the eloquent stylings and dogged scholarship of a man, not trained as a professional historian, to show the schooled of the discipline just how to do it right.

Johnson’s Modern Times (1984) and Intellectuals (1988) stand out as his main contributions to pushing back against the left historical consensus that dominated the later half of the 20th century. By no means did he limit himself to history: he tackled religion, culture, art; he tried his ink-stained hand at fiction as well.

I never had the chance to meet him.

I hope he was as good a man as he was a scholar.

May he now be studying and gazing upon the face of God.