Burgess, John William (1844-1931)

US historian. In 1873 he was appointed professor of political science at Amherst College, Massachusetts, and later moved to New York as professor of political science and constitutional law at Columbia, whose advancement to university status owed much to his efforts.

Burgess was born in Giles County, Tennessee, and educated at Amherst and in Germany at Göttingen, Leipzig, and Berlin.

His publications include Political Science and Comparative Constutional Law 1890, The Civil War and the Constitution, 1859-65 1901, and Reconstruction and the Constitution, 1866-76 1902.