John Fiske was an American philosopher and historian.John Fiske was born Edmund Fiske Green at Hartford,Connecticut,March 30,1842.

He was the only child of Edmund Brewster Green,of Smyrna,Delaware and Mary Fiske Bound,of Middle town,Connecticut.His father was editor of newspapers in Hartford,New York City,and Panama his widow married Edwin W.Stoughton,of New York,in 1855.

On the second marriage of his mother,Edmund Fiske Green assumed the name of his maternal great-grandfather,John Fiske.