Nasatir, Abraham Phineas
NASATIR, ABRAHAM PHINEAS
NASATIR, ABRAHAM PHINEAS (1904–1991), U.S. historian. Born in Santa Ana, California, Nasatir taught at the University of Iowa and then moved to San Diego State College. He was a fellow of the Social Science Research Council and president of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.
Nasatir specialized in the history of the United States West and Southwest, and published Before Lewis and Clark (2 vols., 1952). He edited Etienne Derbec's A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush (1964). Later his interest in the southwest expanded beyond the U.S. frontier to include Hispanic America and led to a history of that area, together with Helen M. Baily, Latin America (1960, 19682). He was active in Jewish affairs.
In 1965 he received the Outstanding Professor Award from the California State University Foundation. The Nasatir Professorship of Modern Jewish History was established in his honor at San Diego State University, where Nasatir taught history for 46 years and was active in the community as an advocate of Jewish education.
His writings include French Activities in California (1945); with G.E. Monell, French Consuls in the United States (1967); with N.M. Loomis, Pedro Vial and the Roads to Santa Fe (1967); Spanish War Vessels on the Mississippi, 1792–1796 (1968); Borderland in Retreat (1976); and The Imperial Osages (with G. Din, 1983).
bibliography:
Contemporary Authors, 11–12 (1965), 287.
[Stanley J. Stein /
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]