Felix Gilbert. . .has incarnated the virtues of history as a vocation. Master of a variety of fields, from the Italian Renaissance through eighteenth century America to modern Europe, Professor Gilbert has contributed in each, works that stand as models of historical scholarship, rich in empirical specificity, yet resonant with a wider significance for understanding history as a whole. William L. McNeill, past president of the American Historical Association, on the occasion of giving Felix Gilbert the Association s first Award for Scholarly Distinction"