Sydney Eckman Ahlstrom was an American historian. He was a Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 professor and a specialist in the religious history of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Ahlstrom was born in Cokato, Minnesota

Cokato, Minnesota

Cokato is a city in Wright County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 2,694 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....

, the son of Joseph T. and Selma Eckman Ahlstrom. He graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College

Gustavus Adolphus College

Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in St. Peter, Minnesota, United States. A coeducational, four-year, residential institution, it was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans. To this day the school is firmly...

 in St. Peter, Minnesota

St. Peter, Minnesota

St. Peter is a city in Nicollet County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 11,196 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Nicollet County.St...

 with a B.A. degree in 1941, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He earned a master's degree at the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 in 1946 and a Ph.D. at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1952. He was a Fulbright fellow at the University of Strasbourg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

, France, and an instructor at Harvard before joining Yale in 1954.

In 1973 he received the National Book Award

National Book Award

The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...

 for his book A Religious History of the American People, published in 1972. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

 in 1978. In 1979 he was awarded The Christian Century

The Christian Century

The Christian Century is a Christian magazine based in Chicago, Illinois. Considered the flagship magazine of U.S. mainline Protestantism, the biweekly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and reviews books, movies, and music...

Award for the Decade's Most Outstanding Book on Religion.

At the time of his retirement from Yale in 1984 he held the position of Samuel Knight Professor of American History and Modern Religious History.

Representative articles

• "The Scottish Philosophy and American Theology," Church History, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Sep., 1955), pp. 257-272 in JSTOR
• "Continental Influence on American Christian Thought since World War I," Church History, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Sept 1958), pp. 256-272 in JSTOR
• "Theology and the Present-Day Revival," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 332, Religion in American Society (Nov., 1960), pp. 20-36 in JSTOR
• "Thomas Hooker: Puritanism and Democratic Citizenship: A Preliminary Inquiry into Some Relationships of Religion and American Civic Responsibility," Church History, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Dec., 1963), pp. 415-431 in JSTOR
• "The Radical Turn in Theology and Ethics: Why It Occurred in the 1960's," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 387, The Sixties: Radical Change in American Religion (Jan., 1970), pp. 1-13 in JSTOR
• "Religion, Revolution and the Rise of Modern Nationalism: Reflections on the American Experience," Church History, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Dec., 1975), pp. 492-504 in JSTOR
• "The Religious Dimension of American Aspirations," Review of Politics vol. 38, No. 3, Bicentennial Issue (Jul., 1976), pp. 332-342 in JSTOR
• "The Romantic Religious Revolution and the Dilemmas of Religious History The Romantic Religious Revolution and the Dilemmas of Religious History," Church History, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 149-170 in JSTOR
• "The Problem of the History of Religion in America," Church History, Vol. 57, Supplement: Centennial Issue (1988), pp. 127-138 in JSTOR