Ira Berlin
Encyclopedia
Ira Berlin is an American
historian
, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland
, and a past President of the Organization of American Historians
. Berlin is the author of such books as Many Thousands Gone and Generations of Captivity.
in 1970. He has written extensively on American history and the larger Atlantic world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Berlin has focused in particular on the history of slavery in the United States. His first book, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South, was awarded the Best First Book Prize by the National Historical Society. In 2003 he also was the chief advisor of the HBO film "Unchained Memories
"
Berlin has long been concerned with studying what he termed the "striking diversity" in African-American life under slavery—a diversity which, he argues, is especially evident when one is attentive to differences over space and time. In his 1998 book Many Thousands Gone, which covers the history of North American slavery up through the 18th century, Berlin differentiates between four regions and their respective slave regimes: the Chesapeake, the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, the Lower Mississippi Valley, and the North. He then explores each of these regions in terms of three distinct "generations," thus emphasizing shifts over time. Berlin argues that geographic and temporal differences in the first two centuries of North American slavery had important consequences for African American culture and society.
He is the founder of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, which he directed until 1991. The project's multi-volume Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation (1982, 1985, 1990, 1993) has twice been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Prize of the Society for the History of the Federal Government as well as the J. Franklin Jameson Prize of the American Historical Association for outstanding editorial achievement. (October, 1999) He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 2004.
In 2007, Berlin was an advising scholar for the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves, produced by Unity Productions Foundation.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, and a past President of the Organization of American Historians
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...
. Berlin is the author of such books as Many Thousands Gone and Generations of Captivity.
Biography
Berlin received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–MadisonUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
in 1970. He has written extensively on American history and the larger Atlantic world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Berlin has focused in particular on the history of slavery in the United States. His first book, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South, was awarded the Best First Book Prize by the National Historical Society. In 2003 he also was the chief advisor of the HBO film "Unchained Memories
Unchained Memories
Unchained Memories is a 2003 documentary films about the stories of former slaves interviewed during the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project. This HBO film interpretation directed by Ed Bell and Thomas Lennon is a compilation of slave narratives, narrated by actors, emulating the...
"
Berlin has long been concerned with studying what he termed the "striking diversity" in African-American life under slavery—a diversity which, he argues, is especially evident when one is attentive to differences over space and time. In his 1998 book Many Thousands Gone, which covers the history of North American slavery up through the 18th century, Berlin differentiates between four regions and their respective slave regimes: the Chesapeake, the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, the Lower Mississippi Valley, and the North. He then explores each of these regions in terms of three distinct "generations," thus emphasizing shifts over time. Berlin argues that geographic and temporal differences in the first two centuries of North American slavery had important consequences for African American culture and society.
He is the founder of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, which he directed until 1991. The project's multi-volume Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation (1982, 1985, 1990, 1993) has twice been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Prize of the Society for the History of the Federal Government as well as the J. Franklin Jameson Prize of the American Historical Association for outstanding editorial achievement. (October, 1999) He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 2004.
In 2007, Berlin was an advising scholar for the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves, produced by Unity Productions Foundation.
Selected works
- Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (The New Press, 1974 and 2007) ISBN 978-1-59558-173-0. Tells the story of the quarter of a million free black men and women who lived in the South before the Civil War, portraying “with careful scholarship, acute analysis, and admirable historical imagination” (The New Republic) their struggle for community, economic independence, and education within an oppressive society.
- Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (Harvard University Press, 1998). Recipient of the 1999 Bancroft PrizeBancroft PrizeThe Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948 by a bequest from Frederic Bancroft...
(Columbia University); Winner of the 1999 Elliott Rudwick Prize of the Organization of American HistoriansOrganization of American HistoriansThe Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...
; Winner of the 1999 Frederick DouglassFrederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
Prize for the Best Book on Slavery; Association of American PublishersAssociation of American PublishersThe Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly...
1998 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Award in the Category of History; Finalist, 1998 National Book Critics CircleNational Book Critics CircleThe National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....
Award for Nonfiction; co-Winner of the Southern Historical Association's Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award for 1999; 1998 Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Book Prize. - Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of African-American Kinship in the Civil War Era Edited By Ira Berlin And Leslie S. Rowland (New Press) ISBN 978-1-56584-026-3 (1996) and ISBN 978-1-56584-440-7 (1998)
- Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves (Harvard University Press, 2003). Winner of the 2003 Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical AssociationAmerican Historical AssociationThe American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
and the 2004 Anisfeld-Wolf Book Award for nonfiction. - The Black Military Experience by Ira Berlin Cambridge Univ Pr 1985 ISBN 978-0-521-22984-5 A collection of first-hand accounts drawn from the extensive records of the National Archives. A social history of black soldiers, it explains how black military service helped to destroy slavery and how soldiering shaped the life of black people during and after the war.
- Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas (Carter G. Woodson Institute Series in Black Studies) edited by Ira Berlin and Philip D. Morgan. University Press of Virginia 1993 Essays set the agenda for scholarshhip in the following decade; reveal the full complexity of the institution of chattel bondage in the New World and suggest why and how slavery varied from place to place and time to time. ISBN 978-0-8139-1424-4
- FREEDOM A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. Selected From the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States. Series One, Volume Three. The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Lower South. Edited by Ira Berlin, Thavolia Glymph, Steven F. Miller, Joseph P. Reidy, Leslie S. Rowland and Julie Saville. 937 pp. 1991 Cambridge University Press.http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/03/books/emancipation-for-what.htmlThe New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
book review by Eric FonerEric FonerEric Foner is an American historian. On the faculty of the Department of History at Columbia University since 1982, he writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography...
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Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
| 2003 | Unchained Memories Unchained Memories Unchained Memories is a 2003 documentary films about the stories of former slaves interviewed during the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project. This HBO film interpretation directed by Ed Bell and Thomas Lennon is a compilation of slave narratives, narrated by actors, emulating the... |
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