Dixon Ryan Fox

Who was Dixon Ryan Fox?

Dixon Ryan Fox was an American educator, researcher, and president of Union College from 1934-45.

Fox graduated from New York University, where he was a member of the Andiron Club.

He took his PhD in history at Columbia University where he was influenced by James Harvey Robinson, Charles A. Beard and Herbert L. Osgood. He married Osgood's daughter and taught at Columbia from 1912 to the mid-1930s.

His academic work focused on social history and American social, political and economic elite and power structures, especially as it relates to immigration, ethnic conflict and national identity.

Fox's publications have been reprinted due to their prescient nature, including The Decline of Aristocracy in the Politics of New York; a biography of Herbert L. Osgood; and Yankees and Yorkers. With Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr., he was editor of the “A History of American Life” series. The Completion of Independence, 1790–1830,.