Martin Ridge

Martin Ridge (May 7, 1923 – September 22, 2003) was an American historian and director of research at the Huntington Library. He is particularly known for the 1982 5th edition of "Westward expansion: a history of the American frontier" co-authored with Ray Allen Billington.

Biography Born and raised in Chicago, Ridge attended Francis W Parker School. He wanted to become an elementary school teacher, and obtained his BEd at the Chicago Teachers College, now Chicago State University in 1943. After serving in the United States Merchant Marine in World War II, he continued his studies at Northwestern University, where he obtained his PhD in 1951 under Ray Allen Billington with the thesis, Ignatius Donnelly: The Making of a Tribune. In 1962 the work was revised and expanded, and was published as Ignatius Donnelly: Portrait of a Politician.

Selected publications Ray Allen Billington, Martin Ridge. Western Expansion: A History of the American Frontier. UNM Press. 1949; 2002. Martin Ridge. Ignatius Donnelly: The Portrait of a Politician. PhD thesis revised and expanded, University of Chicago Press. 1962. Annenberg School of Communications (University of Southern California). Center for Study of the American Experience, & Ridge, M. (1981). The New Bilingualism: An American Dilemma: Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by Center for Study of the American Experience, the Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California, May 1980. Los Angeles, Calif.: University of Southern California Press; New Brunswick, NJ.

Articles, a selection: Ridge, Martin. "The Life of an Idea: The Significance of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis." Montana: The Magazine of Western History (1991): 2–13. Ridge, Martin. "The American West: From Frontier to Region." New Mexico Historical Review 64.2 (1989).