Jakob Larsen

Jacob Larsen ( * March 1, 1888 in Decorah (Iowa), † September 1, 1974 in Columbia ( Missouri)) was an American historian.

Life

Jacob Aall Ottesen Larsen came from a norwegischstämmigen family. His father Peter Lawrence Ottesen was the head of Luther College in Decorah. Here Jacob Larsen studied history and earned a bachelor's degree in 1908. The master he graduated in 1910 at Iowa State University. He then furthered his studies at Yale University (1910/1911) and at the University of Oxford, where he studied for several years and the bachelor degree and a master degree attained again. A Rhodes Scholarship supported his studies in 1914.

After his return to the U.S. in 1921 Larsen worked as an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Washington. In 1926 he moved to the Ohio State University; at the same time he ran at Harvard University with William Scott Ferguson his doctorate, which he reached in 1928 with a record of Greco-Roman forms of government. He was then appointed to the Ohio State University associate professor ( 1929). In the same position in 1930, he went to the University of Chicago, where he was in 1943 appointed a full professor. From 1951 to 1952 he was chairman of the American Philological Association.

1953 Larsen retired, but remained active in research and teaching. From 1953 to 1954 he was Sather Professor in Classics at the University of California at Berkeley. In the following years he was a visiting professor at Rutgers University (1956-1957), at the University of Texas at Austin ( 1960) and at the University of Missouri ( 1960-1971 ). At this university he spent his twilight years. In recognition of his services to him the University of Vermont in 1953 granted the title of Doctor of Laws, the Luther College in 1961 the title of Doctor of Letters. In 1957 he was awarded the Goodwin Award. The British Academy elected him a corresponding member in 1967.

Larsen's research focus was the political situation of the Greek states and Roman Greece.