GERSHOY, LEO

GERSHOY, LEO (1897–1975), U.S. historian. Born in Russia, Gershoy was brought to the United States in 1903. He taught at Long Island University (1920–38) and Sarah Lawrence College (1938–46). After serving in World War II, he was professor of history at New York University from 1946. Gershoy's field was French history, specializing in the Ancien Régime and the French Revolution. Among his publications were The French Revolution and Napoleon (1933; new annotated biography, 1964);From Despotism to Revolution, 1763–1789 (1944, 19623); The Era of the French Revolution, 1789–1799: Ten Years That Shook the World (1957); and Progress and Power (with C. Becker, 1965). In 1975 the American Historical Association established the Leo Gershoy Award, which is presented annually to the author of the most outstanding work published in English on any aspect of 17th- and 18th-century western European history. (Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)