Article

John Bartlet Brebner

Published Online January 15, 2008

Last Edited December 15, 2013

John Bartlet Brebner, historian (b at Toronto 19 May 1895; d at New York C, NY 9 Nov 1957). Educated at University of Toronto, Oxford and Columbia University, he taught 1921-25 at U of T and then moved to Columbia U for the rest of his academic life.

Brebner, John Bartlet

John Bartlet Brebner, historian (b at Toronto 19 May 1895; d at New York C, NY 9 Nov 1957). Educated at University of Toronto, Oxford and Columbia University, he taught 1921-25 at U of T and then moved to Columbia U for the rest of his academic life. There he established his reputation as a historian and teacher; he was also very active in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Brebner's most influential books are New England's Outpost (1927), The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia (1937), The North Atlantic Triangle (1945) and, with M.L. Hansen, The Mingling of the Canadian and American People (1940). His explanation for the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755 and the neutrality of Nova Scotia during the American Revolution is still widely regarded as the "classic account."