MacKendrick was born in
Taunton, Massachusetts, but most of his productive years had been lived in
Madison, Wisconsin. MacKendrick was educated at
Harvard University (1934
B.A., summa cum laude; 1937
M.A.; 1938
Ph.D.) and
Balliol College, Oxford, after which he taught at
Phillips Academy for some years. Future
United States President George H. W. Bush was a student of MacKendrick's while he taught at
Phillips Academy. He joined the
U.S. Naval Reserve and served from 1941–45. He taught at Harvard in 1946 and then moved to
University of Wisconsin–Madison as Assistant Professor of Classics where he taught for six years. MacKendrick was named a Professor of Classics in 1952 and in 1975, the
Lily Ross Taylor Professor of Classics. In all, he taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1946 to 1984. In 1952, he worked with Herbert M. Howe on the publication of
Classics in Translation, an anthology of selections by
ancient Greek and
Roman writers. In 1958, two books followed:
The Ancient World, co-authored with Vincent M. Scramuzza and
The Roman Mind At Work. He is most widely known for a series of books that utilise the discoveries of archeology to reconstruct the histories of particular cultures or civilizations. The first of these,
The Mute Stones Speak, surveys the cultures of the
Italian peninsula from prehistoric times, with emphasis on the Romans, to the adoption of
Christianity as the official religion of the empire in 324 A.D.
The Greek Stones Speak followed in 1962. Starting with
Troy and
Heinrich Schliemann's excavations, the reader is told of excavations of major centers of the
Hellenic world, including the story of
Michael Ventris' decipherment of
Linear B. Several additional titles appeared in this series, and by 1980 it had surveyed regions and cultures of almost the entire area of the
Roman Empire. Professor MacKendrick had retired from teaching in 1984. ==Honors==