Joyce Appleby

Joyce Appleby, distinguished scholar and author, died at her home in Taos on December 23.  The cause was complications of pneumonia, said her daughter, Ann Caylor.

Dr. Appleby achieved academic recognition with work that showed how ideas about liberty and capitalism were  seminal in shaping the lives of the revolutionary generation.  While she was a noted scholar of Thomas Jefferson, much of her work emphasized the views that influenced ordinary Americans at the time.  Among her many works are Capitalism and a New Social Order:  The Republican Vision of the 1790s (1984), which first brought her to prominence, Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination (1992), and Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (2001).

Professor Appleby began her teaching career at San Diego State University (1967-1982) and then taught at UCLA until her retirement in 2001.  She rose to the top of her profession and served as President of the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.  

Dr. Appleby moved to Taos in 2012 and enjoyed speaking on several occasions to local groups including SOMOS and the Taos Historical Society.  She also finished her last book here, Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination (2014).  In addition to her daughter, she is survived by her sons, Frank Appleby and Mark Lansburgh, and four grandchildren.