Herbert H. Lang

Who was Herbert H. Lang?

Herbert Howard Lang, known as Herb Lang, was an historian of the American West who spent nearly all of his academic career at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Lang was born in New York City to Edward and Estelle Lang. He served in the United States Navy during World War II, when he met his wife of fifty-eight years, the late Elizabeth Brian Lang. After the war, Lang earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees and in 1954 his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation topic was "Nineteenth Century Historians of the Gulf States". Lang first taught at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, New Mexico. This first assignment proved fortuitous for Lang in that he became a scholar of the mining frontier of the Trans-Mississippi West. In 1956, Lang joined the TAMU history faculty. He was elevated to full professor in 1965. In his later academic years, Lang was a founder of the TAMU honors program and was the graduate-student history advisor under department chairman Henry C. Dethloff.

In 1970, Lang received an "Achievement Award" from the TAMU Association of Former Students.