Holst, Hermann Eduard von

Holst, Hermann Eduard von (fən hôlst), 1841–1904, American historian, b. Livonia (then part of Russia), of German parents. He was barred from Russia because of a pamphlet attacking the czarist government. He immigrated (1867) to the United States, where hardship and labor undermined his health. While in the United States he studied American institutions. In 1872 he returned to Europe to teach in the universities of Strasbourg (1872–74) and Freiburg (1874–92). His Constitutional and Political History of the United States (7 vol., 1876–92), written in German and translated, is chiefly the constitutional and political history of slavery and the struggle to preserve the Union. He fervently supported and vividly portrayed the Union cause. From 1892 to 1900 he was head of the history department at the newly founded Univ. of Chicago.