Hans L. Trefousse

Using his GI Bill benefits, Trefousse studied history at Columbia University, receiving his M.A. in 1947 and Ph.D. in 1950. He married Rachelle Friedlander two years later, and they had a son and daughter who survived them.

Trefousse initially was interested in diplomatic history, and his first book, based on his dissertation, was German and American Neutrality, 1939–1941. After encountering racist incidents in New York City, he switched focuses, publishing a biography, Ben Butler: The South Called Him Beast! (1957), detailing the military governor's harsh but efficient administration of New Orleans, Louisiana, after its surrender to the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He continued to teach at Brooklyn College and published many books on the Reconstruction era, including biographies of previously maligned Radical Republicans Benjamin F. Wade and Thaddeus Stevens, as well as Presidents Andrew Johnson and Rutherford B. Hayes. Some historians consider his most influential book The Radical Republicans: Lincoln's Vanguard for Racial Justice (1969), which disagreed with the dominant historical narrative of the time regarding Reconstruction, arguing instead that Reconstruction was a failed attempt "to bring racial justice to the South." In total Trefousse authored over twenty books.

Trefousse was born in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1935 (at age 13) as his parents fled the increasingly totalitarian Nazi regime. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from New York City College in 1942. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served as an intelligence officer in the Second World War, using his fluent German to interrogate German soldiers. He also participated in the Liberation of Paris, and in Leipzig saved hundreds of lives by arguing for 11 hours with a Nazi commander holed with many troops, convincing him to surrender to Allied forces.

Hans Louis Trefousse (December 18, 1921, Frankfurt/Main, Germany – January 8, 2010, Staten Island, NY) was a German-born American author and historian of the Reconstruction Era and World War II. He was a long time professor (and professor emeritus) at Brooklyn College, from 1950 to 1998. He also taught as a distinguished professor of history at City University of New York.