Virgil Howard Joseph Vogel was born on February 25, 1918 in Keota, Iowa. His parents were Michael Edward Vogel, a farmer and railroad mail foreman, and Veda Irene (Talbot) Vogel. In 1943 Vogel married Ida Marian Lieberman and they became the parents of two children, Ann Vogel Mahaffey and Eugene Victor Vogel. In 1965 he married the artist Genelle Louise Walden and had a second son, John V. Vogel.
Vogel was educated at Chicago City Junior College from 1936 to 1938 and then at the Chicago Teachers College where he received his BE. He received his MA (1949) and Ph.D. (1966) in history from the University of Chicago. Vogel taught in the Chicago Public Schools until 1967 when he became a professor of history at Truman College (part of the City Colleges) in Chicago. There he taught U.S. history, Native American history, and social sciences until his retirement in 1980. He also taught adult education classes at the American Indian Center. Vogel was a member of various commissions and professional associations related to teaching, Native Americans, Illinois history, and labor, and he was regarded as an expert on Midwestern Native Americans. Vogel also wrote many publications on the topic including This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian, which is regarded as a standard work in the field. His other writings are listed below.
With Burton Rosen, in 1970 Vogel helped to restart the Charles H. Kerr Company, a radical publishing house in Chicago which reprinted several titles including William H. Carwardine's The Pullman Strike.
Vogel was a lifelong socialist, although he quit and re-joined the party several times due to ideological differences. From 1938 to 1949 he was a member of the Socialist Party and from 1945 to 1949 he was national chairman of the Young People's Socialist League. In 1949 he left the party to form the Libertarian Socialist League, a branch of socialism that rejected authoritarian socialism, especially Stalinism. Under the name Victor Howard, Vogel co-edited the LSL internal discussion bulletin Socialist Views. He also directed the LSL summer camps in Wisconsin.
In 1956 Vogel rejoined the reconstituted Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation (SP-SDF), but he quit again in 1970 when he perceived the SP-SDF as becoming more conservative. In 1972, under the leadership of Michael Harrington, the Socialist Party changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) and Vogel, though no longer in the party, urged his fellow dissidents to recreate the Socialist Party. Those who responded included the Debs Caucus, the Union for Democratic Socialism, the Socialist Party of Wisconsin, and the Socialist Party of California. In February the Chicago members re-established the Socialist Party of Illinois, and Vogel used its newsletter as a rallying point for the revival sentiment. On April 26-27, 1973 in Milwaukee he participated in re-forming the Socialist Party (SP USA). Subsequently Vogel was a member of the SP USA National Action Committee, and he edited Hammer and Tongs, the party's discussion bulletin, until May 1974. In 1976 Vogel was the SP USA candidate for governor of Illinois.
In 1977 Vogel resigned from the Socialist Party USA, again due to ideological differences. Thereafter he became involved in the People's Party of Chicago, and he published The Oar, an independent journal of opinion until 1979. After his professional retirement in 1980, Vogel continued to write on Native Americans until his death on January 10, 1994.
Vogel's writings as Victor Howard
-
Indian Place Names in Illinois . Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1963.
-
The Missionary as Acculturation Agent . Michigan History, 1966.
-
The Indian in American History . Integrated Education Associates, 1968.
-
American Indian Medicine . Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
-
This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian . New York: Harper 8 Row, 1972.
-
“Indian Ways with Farming and Wild Foods.” In Look to the Mountain Top . H.M. Gousha, 1972.
-
The First Libertarian Socialist League, 1949-1956 , 1975.
-
For a Libertarian Socialist Caucus , 1975.
-
“American Indian Foods Used as Medicine.” In American Folk Medicine . Berkeley: University of California, 1976.
-
The Oar , 1977-1979.
-
Wisconsin's Name: A Linguistic Puzzle . Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1980.
-
The Journey of Silas Bigelow . (Novel) Collage, 1981.
-
Iowa Place Names of Indian Origin . Iowa City: University of Michigan Press, 1986.
-
Indian names in Michigan . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1986.
-
Indian Names on Wisconsin's Map . Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991.
