Joel Silbey, emeritus professor of history, dies at 84

Historian Joel H. Silbey, the President White Professor of History Emeritus and a member of the Cornell faculty since 1966, died Aug. 7. He was 84.Silbey was a prolific scholar of American history and political behavior, with a particular focus on the 19th century, and his teaching and scholarly interests included the Jacksonian era, sectional controversy, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and quantitative methods in history.