Frederick J. Teggart

Frederick J. Teggart (born May 9, 1870, Belfast, County Antrim, Ire.—died Oct. 12, 1946, Berkeley, Calif., U.S.) was an Irish-born American historian who sought to apply scientific method to social and historical inquiry.

Teggart studied at Methodist College, Belfast, and Trinity College, Dublin; went to the United States in 1889; and studied at Stanford University (B.A., 1894). He taught history and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1919 founded the department of social institutions, remaining chairman until 1940. He explored social and historical theory in his first major works, Prolegomena to History (1916) and Theory of History (1925).

As a historian, Teggart sought, in the manner of a scientist, to relate isolated historical phenomena (datable events) to a general class of phenomena by means of comparison. In two works, The Processes of History (1918) and Rome and China (1939), he demonstrated correlations between datable events occurring contemporaneously in different cultures of the Eurasian landmass. The correlations thus established he held to be themselves historical facts susceptible to further scientific analysis.