Inspirational Quotes by Constance Rourke (American Historian)

Constance Mayfield Rourke (1885–1941) was an American educator, author, and historian of American culture. She is best known for her advocacy of Native American culture and her “living research” sources and methods.

Rourke was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended Sorbonne and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She taught English at Vassar 1910–15. After that, she supported herself mainly as a freelance writer in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She also wrote numerous criticisms for magazines like The Nation and The New Republic.

Rourke pioneered an American character that encompassed both established arts and popular culture. Her best-known work remains American Humor: A Study of the National Character (1931.) An unfinished manuscript, posthumously published as Roots of American Culture (1942,) spurred scholarship in the nascent field of American Studies.

Joan Shelley Rubin published the biography Constance Rourke and American Culture (1980.)

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