Rockwell D. Hunt
Rockwell Dennis Hunt was an eminent California historian, a professor at the University of Southern California and the University of the Pacific, and prolific author. He was named Mr. California by Governor Goodwin Knight in 1954.
Hunt was born in Sacramento, California. He received his bachelor's degree from Napa College in 1890 and his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1895. He taught economics at the University of Southern California starting in 1908, and served as dean of its graduate school from 1920 to his retirement in 1945.
After his retirement from USC, he became the first director of the California History Foundation at the University of the Pacific.
His 'California the Golden' published in 1911 by Silver, Burdett & Company in the Stories of the States series is about as racist as you can get against Native Americans and Chinese.
In a journal article in 1911, Rockwell D. Hunt praises Hubert Howe Bancroft for his thirty-nine volumes on the history of the Pacific Coast, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Yet Rockwell D. Hunt faults H. H. Bancroft for his methodology. Bancroft employed many assistant writers, and only a few were history specialists. The writing is undigested raw materials, lacking in literary style. In comparison, the Cambridge Modern History is written by eminent scholars.
