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EMAILS
12-30-2021 Modern American Colloquium: Strategic and Sensible Version (Tuesdays @10am)
Greetings, Modern American Colloq folks. I'm truly enjoying the sudden calm of my inbox, so take this as a calm email written at a calm time, looking to the future with the firm intention to make calm, reasonable plans for this semester's work. I want us all to have a buy-in to the colloq that suits us--as a collective group and as individuals putting together our respective portfolios.
Know this: we're going to be meeting at 10am every week. No grad seminar should start at 9am. It's heretical to our way of life and entirely too corporate. Yale grad seminars are 2 hours long, and I feel like that made for a tight, substantive experience. So 10-12 is what I'm thinking for the "we mean business" seminar, with a relaxed 12-12:30 socialization (byo snack/lunch?) built in as our exit ritual. I'll check with the registrar on the room availability situation.
Our first class will be Tuesday, Jan. 25th. I know some of you are on research trips or traveling or writing major research papers. I want all six of us to be there for our first meeting, and I want us there with a resolve to engage in a mutual aid communal ethos of identifying and pursuing our aims for the semester then supporting each other in achieving those aims.
I'm starting to collect materials and putting them on my webpage under Courses > Modern American Colloquium:
https://sites.google.com/brandeis.edu/professorabigailcooper/courses/modern-american-colloquium
As Rafi's earlier email indicated, this is an Open Syllabus class. I will get you the template by next week. It will be up on my webpage too. I will start filling in some of the weeks. I encourage you to use the "In Development" space to jot down some intentions before you commit to a week. As a reminder--
Rafi's earlier email said: "Prof. Cooper is planning her Modern U.S. History spring seminar to be collaborative, and for the students to contribute to the curriculum and suggest/teach topics and texts that are useful for our own purposes. The idea is that we will each need to read historiography for our independent work and our comps, so this seminar can serve as a kind of workshop where we can all work toward our personal goals, with each other's support.
I think there will be four to six of us, so it might be beneficial for each of us to plan two to three sessions of material. The scope of the class is 1865 to the present, and our selections should be somewhat spread out over a chronological and thematic range, though some overlap should be okay."
I just sent you all an email under separate cover that gave you editorial access to the Modern American Colloquium page. The "In Development" space is where I want to encourage you to start jotting down some ideas, book lists, articles, podcast episodes, etc. Make sure you put your name on what you contribute. What you write is visible only to me as the site owner until I hit "publish." Then classmates can see too.
I want to make a pitch for our first reading on 1/25. It's a classic (published in 1988), and it's a classic for a reason. I read it in 2007, and it was instrumental in converting me from doing history within theory-oriented "Studies" departments to doing straight-up History in History departments, warts and vexed genealogy and all. It's Peter Novick's That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession.
Brandeis has the ebook here: ONESEARCH PAGE: https://search.library.brandeis.edu/permalink/01BRAND_INST/nmaao4/alma9923561889601921 DOI LINK: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816345
It's hard to say that Historians have a canon anymore--books you must read to join the guild. But I realize that when I talk to History graduate students, I often presume the information in Novick's book even though I know I can't assume that it has been part of your training. So this book can be an intellectual meeting place for us to talk about on Tuesday, Jan. 25. I don't care if you read books digitally or in print. I dislike dealing with the bookstore, so I didn't make any orders (except maybe 1619 Project book because I want them to have those stocked on their shelves for all my classes). We are reading Novick for content, not for method. The point is: We are starting with a "The author wrote this. I read this. It made me think this when I put it together with my other knowledge" discussion. Critique is always welcome, of course. Just know that throughout the course, your critique should define the choices you make about what you want to produce. So be ready for the follow-up to be: "So how would you do it differently and why?"
I want this iteration of the colloq to be as centered on pro-Black racial justice as possible. Most of you know that my thing is reckoning with slavery and validating Black culture. (My "noble dream" would be to become and to train people to become evidence-based experts providing substantive bases for reparations.) So in the Novick book, make sure you read about the Julius Lester-Robert Starobin confrontation. And if "objectivity" is on the discussion table, "agency" should be too.
Okay, I'm supposed to be writing a book, so I'd better get back to it. Happy New Year to you all. -Abby Cooper
BOOKS
BOOKS
A. COOPER'S RECENT BOOK PURCHASES (to give a bit of insight to my intellectual world of late)
A. COOPER'S RECENT BOOK PURCHASES (to give a bit of insight to my intellectual world of late)
My 2021 & 2020 Book Purchases:
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Hannah-Jones, Nikole
The Recovered Life of Isaac Anderson
Jackson, Alicia K.
The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West
Nelson, Megan Kate
How to Make a Slave and Other Essays (21st Century Essays)
Walker, Jerald
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
(CONTINUED)
The Souls of Womenfolk: The Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South The Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South (Books)
Wells-Oghoghomeh
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (Books)
Smith, Clint
Rules for Writers (Paperback) with 2020 APA Update (Books)
Hacker, Diana, Sommers, Nancy
Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (Books)
French, Howard W.
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Books)
Fleetwood, Nicole R., Harvard University Press
Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines Countering Colorblindness across the Disciplines (Books)
Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams, Harris, Luke Charles, HoSang, Daniel Martinez, Lipsitz, George, University of California Press
On Juneteenth (Books)
Gordon-Reed, Annette
Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching (Books)
Feimster, Crystal N.
Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower (Gender and American Culture) Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower Gender and American Culture (Books)
White, Deborah Gray,
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 (Books)
Kendi, Ibram X., Blain, Keisha N., One World
Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence (Books)
Williams, Chad, Williams, Kidada E., Blain, Keisha N., University of Georgia Press
Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership (Justice, Power, and Politics) How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership Justice, Power, and Politics (Books)
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta, University of North Carolina Press
Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History A Transnational and Comparative History (Books)
Araujo, Ana Lucia, Bloomsbury Academic
Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women Religion, Music, and Lived Memory among Gullah/Geechee Women (Books)
Manigault-Bryant, LeRhonda S.,
Technical Difficulties: African-American Notes on the State of the Union (Books)
Jordan, June
Gospel Choirs: Psalms Of Survival In An Alien Land Called Home Psalms Of Survival In An Alien Land Called Home (Books)
Bell, Derrick
Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America, 1619-1962 A History of the Negro in America, 1619-1962 (Books)
Bennett, Lerone
Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics (Books)
McClaurin, Irma
Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora (Blacks in the Diaspora) Blacks in the Diaspora (Books)
Ogundiran, Akinwumi, Falola, Toyin
Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization (Books)
Bedasse, Monique A.,
Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular (Books)
MacGaffey, Wyatt
Death Is a Festival: Funeral Rites and Rebellion in Nineteenth-Century Brazil Funeral Rites and Rebellion in Nineteenth-Century Brazil Latin America in Translation/en Traducción/em Tradução (Books)
Reis, Joao Jose
Religion of the Field Negro: On Black Secularism and Black Theology (Books)
Lloyd, Vincent W.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents The Origins of Our Discontents
Wilkerson, Isabel,
The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies
King, Tiffany Lethabo
Necropolitics (Theory in Forms) Theory in Forms
Mbembe, Achille
Troubling Freedom: Antigua and the Aftermath of British Emancipation Antigua and the Aftermath of British Emancipation (Books)
Lightfoot, Natasha
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals (Books)
Hartman, Saidiya
Soul Liberty: The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Postemancipation Virginia (Kindle Books)
Turner, Nicole Myers
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America (Books)
McDaniel, W. Caleb
Soul On Ice
Cleaver, Eldridge
Divine Horsemen : The Living Gods of Haiti
Maya Deren
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston
by: Boyd, Valerie
BROAD AUDIENCE BOOK AWARD WINNERS
BROAD AUDIENCE BOOK AWARD WINNERS
National Book Award
Winners & Finalists
Nonfiction
National Book Award
Winners & Finalists
Nonfiction
*Blue font=under consideration for syllabus
2005: Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking[memoir]
Finalists
Alan Burdick, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion
Leo Damrosch, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius [bio: Jean-Jacques Rousseau]
Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
2006: Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Finalists
Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
Peter Hessler, Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
2007: Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Finalists
Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison: A Biography [bio: Ralph Ellison]
2008: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
Jim Sheeler, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives
Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father's Death in Order
2009: T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt [bio: Cornelius Vanderbilt]
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
Greg Grandin, Fordlândia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City [about: Fordlândia]
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy [bio: Mithradates]
2010: Patti Smith, Just Kids [memoir]
Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq
Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade [bio: Samuel Steward]
Megan K. Stack, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War
2011: Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism [bio: Maryam Jameelah]
Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution [bio: Karl Marx and Jenny von Westphalen]
Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention [bio: Malcolm X]
Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love & Fallout [bio: Marie & Pierre Curie]
2012: Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956
Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas
Anthony Shadid, House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
2013: George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin[bio: Jane Mecom]
Wendy Lower, Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
2014: Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Roz Chast, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among The Living
John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh[bio: Tennessee Williams]
E.O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence
2015: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Sally Mann, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs
Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
Carla Power, If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran
Tracy K. Smith, Ordinary Light: A Memoir
2016: Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
2017: Masha Gessen, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America
David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
2018: Jeffrey C. Stewart, The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
Colin G. Calloway, The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation
Victoria Johnson, American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic
Sarah Smarsh, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
Adam Winkler, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
2019: Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays
Carolyn Forché, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
Albert Woodfox with Leslie George, Solitary
2020: Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
Finalists
Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans
Jerald Walker, How To Make a Slave and Other Essays
2021: Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Finalists
Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
Lucas Bessire, Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains
Grace M Cho, Tastes Like War: A Memoir
Nicole Eustace, Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS & FINALISTS
Nonfiction
PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS & FINALISTS
Nonfiction
2021
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, by Marcia Chatelain (Liveright/Norton)
A nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African-American communities, a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.
The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, by Eric Cervini (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, by Megan Kate Nelson (Scribner)
2020
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America, by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
A masterfully researched meditation on reparations based on the remarkable story of a 19th century woman who survived kidnapping and re-enslavement to sue her captor.
Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (University of North Carolina Press)
The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
2019
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (Simon & Schuster)
A breathtaking history that demonstrates the scope of Frederick Douglass’ influence through deep research on his writings, his intellectual evolution and his relationships.
American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by Victoria Johnson (Liveright/W.W. Norton)
Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition, by W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)
2018
The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, by Jack E. Davis (Liveright/W.W. Norton)
An important environmental history of the Gulf of Mexico that brings crucial attention to Earth’s 10th-largest body of water, one of the planet’s most diverse and productive marine ecosystems.
Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics, by Kim Phillips-Fein (Metropolitan Books)
Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America, by Steven J. Ross (Bloomsbury)
2017
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson (Pantheon)
For a narrative history that sets high standards for scholarly judgment and tenacity of inquiry in seeking the truth about the 1971 Attica prison riots.
Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It, by Larrie D. Ferreiro (Alfred A. Knopf)
New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America, by Wendy Warren (Liveright/W.W. Norton)
2016
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, by T.J. Stiles (Alfred A. Knopf)
A rich and surprising new telling of the journey of the iconic American soldier whose death turns out not to have been the main point of his life. (Moved by the Board from the Biography category.)
Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, by Brian Matthew Jordan (Liveright/Norton)
Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, by James M. Scott (W.W. Norton & Company)
The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency, by Annie Jacobsen (Little, Brown & Company)
2015
Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People, by Elizabeth A. Fenn (Hill and Wang)
An engrossing, original narrative showing the Mandans, a Native American tribe in the Dakotas, as a people with a history.
An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, by Nick Bunker (Alfred A. Knopf)
Empire of Cotton: A Global History, by Sven Beckert (Alfred A. Knopf)
2014
The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832, by Alan Taylor (W.W. Norton)
A meticulous and insightful account of why runaway slaves in the colonial era were drawn to the British side as potential liberators.
A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America, by Jacqueline Jones (Basic Books)
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety, by Eric Schlosser (The Penguin Press)
2013
Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall (Random House)
A balanced, deeply researched history of how, as French colonial rule faltered, a succession of American leaders moved step by step down a road toward full-blown war.
Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History, by John Fabian Witt (Free Press)
The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675, by Bernard Bailyn (Alfred A. Knopf)
2012
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable (Viking)
An exploration of the legendary life and provocative views of one of the most significant African-Americans in U.S. history, a work that separates fact from fiction and blends the heroic and tragic.
Empires, Nations & Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860, by Anne F. Hyde (University of Nebraska Press)
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, by Richard White (W.W. Norton & Company)
The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (Ballantine Books)
2011
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, by Eric Foner (W.W. Norton & Company)
A well orchestrated examination of Lincoln's changing views of slavery, bringing unforeseeable twists and a fresh sense of improbability to a familiar story.
Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South, by Stephanie McCurry (Harvard University Press)
Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston, by Michael Rawson (Harvard University Press)
2010
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed (The Penguin Press)
A compelling account of how four powerful bankers played crucial roles in triggering the Great Depression and ultimately transforming the United States into the world's financial leader.
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, by Gordon S. Wood ((Oxford University Press)
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company)
2009
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)
A painstaking exploration of a sprawling multi-generation slave family that casts provocative new light on the relationship between Sally Hemings and her master, Thomas Jefferson.
The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s, by G. Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot (The Penguin Press)
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust (Alfred A. Knopf)
2008
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, by Daniel Walker Howe (Oxford University Press)
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, by Robert Dallek (HarperCollins)
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by David Halberstam (Hyperion)
2007
The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (Alfred A. Knopf)
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking)
Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005, by James T. Campbell (The Penguin Press)
2006
Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky (Oxford University Press)
New York Burning, by Jill Lepore (Alfred A. Knopf)
The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, by Sean Wilentz (W.W. Norton)
2005
Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press)
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, by Kevin Boyle (Henry Holt)
Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860, volumes 1 & 2, by Michael O'Brien (The University of North Carolina Press)
2004
A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration, by Steven Hahn (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)
Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, by Daniel Okrent (Viking)
They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October1967, by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster)
2003
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, by Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt and Company)
At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, by Philip Dray (Random House)
Rereading Sex: Battles Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth Century America, by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz (Alfred A. Knopf)
2002
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, by Louis Menand (Farrar)
Deep Souths: Delta, Piedmont, and the Sea Island Society in the Age of Segregation, by J. William Harris (The Johns Hopkins University Press)
Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, by Daniel K. Richter (Harvard University Press)
2001
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, by Joseph J. Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf)
The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, by Alexander Keyssar (Basic Books)
Way Out There in the Blue, by Frances FitzGerald (Simon & Schuster)
2000
Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, by David M. Kennedy (Oxford University Press)
Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier, by James H. Merrell (W.W. Norton)
The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics and the Triumph of Anglo-America, by Kevin Phillips (Basic Books)
1999
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace (Oxford University Press)
In a Barren Land: American Indian Dispossession and Survival, by Paula Mitchell Marks (William Morrow and Company)
This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, by William E. Burrows (Random House)
1998
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, by Edward J. Larson (BasicBooks)
Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America, by J. Anthony Lukas (Simon & Schuster)
Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History, by Rogers M. Smith (Yale University Press)
THE BANCROFT PRIZE
American History
THE BANCROFT PRIZE
American History
*Red font=under consideration for early period
2021
2021
Katrina: A History, 1915-2015
by Andy Horowitz
published by Harvard University Press (2020)
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
by Claudio Saunt
published by W.W. Norton & Company (2020)
2020
2020
Saving America's Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age
by Lizabeth Cohen
published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2019)
Illusions of Emancipation: The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery
by Joseph P. Reidy
published by The University of North Carolina Press (2019)
2019
2019
Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom
by David W. Blight
published by Simon and Schuster (2018)
Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War
by Lisa Brooks
published by Yale University Press (2018)
2018
2018
Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945
by Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio
published by Oxford University Press (2017)
God's Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America
by Louis S. Warren
published by Basic Books (2017)
Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England
by Douglas L. Winiarski
published by The University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (2017)
2017
2017
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
by Andrés Reséndez
published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2016)
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
by Heather Ann Thompson
published by Pantheon Books (2016)
Remaking the American Patient: How Madison Avenue and Modern Medicine Turned Patients into Consumers
by Nancy Tomes
published by The University of North Carolina Press (2016)
2016
2016
Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
by Mary Sarah Bilder
published by Harvard University Press (2015)
The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast
by Andrew Lipman
published by Yale University Press (2015)
Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood
by Deborah A. Rosen
published by Harvard University Press (2015)
2015
2015
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
by Sven Beckert
published by Alfred A. Knopf (2014)
The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World
by Greg Grandin
published by Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company (2014)
2014
2014
Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
by Ira Katznelson
published by Liveright Publishing Corporation/W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (2013)
A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek
by Ari Kelman
published by Harvard University Press (2013)
2013
2013
The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail
by W. Jeffrey Bolster
published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2012)
Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History
by John Fabian Witt
published by Free Press (2012)
2012
2012
Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement
by Tomiko Brown-Nagin
published by Oxford University Press (2011)
Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800–1860
by Anne F. Hyde
published by University of Nebraska Press (2011)
Age of Fracture
by Daniel T. Rodgers
published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
2011
2011
Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America
by Sara Dubow
Published by Oxford University Press (2010)
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
by Eric Foner
Published by W.W. Norton & Company (2010)
Freedom Bound: Law, Labor, and Civic Identity in Colonizing English America
by Christopher Tomlins
Published by Cambridge University Press (2010)
2010
2010
Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits
By Linda Gordon
Published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Abigail Adams
By Woody Holton
Published by Free Press
White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940
By Margaret D. Jacobs
Published by University of Nebraska Press (2009)
2009
2009
Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War
By Thomas G. Andrews
Published by Harvard University Press
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
By Drew Gilpin Faust
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
The Comanche Empire
By Pekka Hämäläinen
Published by Yale University Press (2008)
2008
2008
The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America
By Allan M. Brandt
Published by Basic Books
The Populist Vision
By Charles Postel
Published by Oxford University Press
Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America
By Peter Silver
Published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (2007)
2007
2007
Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South
By Jack Temple Kirby
Published by The University of North Carolina Press
William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism
By Robert D. Richardson
Published by Houghton Mifflin (2006)
2006
2006
Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic
By Erskine Clarke
Published by Yale University Press
The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times
By Odd Arne Westad
Published by Cambridge University Press
The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
By Sean Wilentz
Published by W. W. Norton & Company (2005)
2005
2005
Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War
By Melvin Patrick Ely
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality
By Michael J. Klarman
Published by Oxford University Press
Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860 (2 volumes)
By Michael O’Brien
Published by University of North Carolina Press (2004)
2004
2004
In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863
By Edward L. Ayers
Published by W.W. Norton & Co.
A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration
By Steven Hahn
Published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Jonathan Edwards: A Life
By George M. Marsden
Published by Yale University Press
2003
2003
Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands
By James F. Brooks
Published by the University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717
By Alan Gallay
Published by Yale University Press
2002
2002
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
By David W. Blight
Published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America
By Alice Kessler-Harris
Published by Oxford University Press (2001)
2001
2001
Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush
By Susan Lee Johnson
Published by W. W. Norton & Company
The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst
By David Nasaw
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company (2000)
2000
2000
Into the American Woods: Negotiations on the Pennsylvania Frontier
By James H. Merrell
Published by W. W. Norton & Company
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
By John Dower
Published by W. W. Norton & Company and The New Press
The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
By Linda Gordon
Published by Harvard University Press (1999)
1999
1999
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
By Ira Berlin
Published by Harvard University Press
Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry
By Philip D. Morgan
Published by University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity
By Jill Lepore
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (1998)
1998
1998
Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt
By Christine Leigh Heyrman
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
The Clash: A History of U.S.-Japan Relations
By Walter LaFeber
Published by W. W. Norton & Company
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
By Thomas J. Sugrue
Published by Princeton University Press (1997)
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