John Fiske

John Fiske (1842–1901) was an American philosopher, historian and lecturer. Born Edmund Fisk Green in Hartford, Connecticut, he studied at Harvard, where he embraced the evolutionary philosophy of Herbert Spencer and set it out in Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy (1874), arguing that evolution and religion were compatible. From the 1880s he turned to American history, producing a series of readable narratives including The Critical Period of American History (1888), The Beginnings of New England and The Discovery of America, and he was one of the most popular public lecturers of his time. A large man of large appetites, he died at fifty-nine.