Oxford History of the United States
Encyclopedia
The Oxford History of the United States (1982–present) is an ongoing multi-volume narrative history
of the United States
published by Oxford University Press
.
The series originated with a plan laid out by historians C. Vann Woodward
and Richard Hofstadter
for a multi-volume history of the United States, one that would provide a summary of the political, social, and cultural history of the nation for a general audience. The project proved to be more challenging than initially envisioned, however. New fields of historical study emerged in the 1960s, and personal issues intervened for some of the authors. Among the historians connected with the series at one time or another were Willie Lee Rose, Morton Keller, John Lewis Gaddis
, Stanley Elkins
and Eric McKitrick
. Though some of these historians completed books as a result of their respective assignments, none of them was published as part of the series.
The first volume published in the series, Robert Middlekauff's The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, finally was released in 1982 (ISBN 0-19-502921-6). Included on the rear dust jacket flap to the original hardcover edition was a projected outline for the series at that point:
McPherson's volume on the Civil War and its causes was subsequently published in 1988 as Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Two more volumes followed under Woodward's editorship. Volume 10, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974 by James T. Patterson, was published in 1997, while Volume 9, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945, was published in 1999. Sellers's contribution was published separately from the series in 1991 as The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846 (ISBN 0-19-503889-4), supposedly for its excessive focus on the economics of the era, and the volume reassigned to another historian.
's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (ISBN 0-19-507894-2), which was released in 2007, Volume 12, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (ISBN 0-19-507822-5) by George C. Herring, published in October 2008, and Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (ISBN 978-0195039146) by Gordon S. Wood, published in September 2009.
A volume written by H. W. Brands covering Gilded Age
America — Leviathan: America Comes of Age, 1865–1900 — was also to be published as part of the series, but was withdrawn in 2006 and published outside the Oxford History series in October 2010 as American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900.
Volume 9 was also published in 2003 as two smaller volumes:
† = won Pulitzer Prize
‡ = nominated for Pulitzer Prize
for History upon their publication. Middlekauff's Glorious Cause and Wood's Empire of Liberty were finalists for the prize in 1982 and 2010, respectively. Patterson's Grand Expectations also received the 1997 Bancroft Prize
in American history.
However, in October 2006 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, the magazine's book editor, Benjamin Schwarz, condemned some of the titles in the Oxford History of the United States as "bloated and intellectually flabby." He argued that volumes 9 through 11 in the series compared unfavorably to the entries in the New Oxford History of England, maintaining that the volumes "lack the intellectual refinement, analytic sharpness, and stylistic verve" of their English counterparts. Schwarz wrote his review when only five volumes in the series were available, and he specifically exempted two (McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Middlekauff's Glorious Cause) from his criticisms.
Narrative history
Narrative history is the practice of writing history in a story-based form. It can be divided into two subgenres: the traditional narrative and the modern narrative....
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
published by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
.
Woodward editorship
C. Vann Woodward
Comer Vann Woodward was a preeminent American historian focusing primarily on the American South and race relations. He was considered, along with Richard Hofstadter and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., to be one of the most influential historians of the postwar era, 1940s-1970s, both by scholars and by...
and Richard Hofstadter
Richard Hofstadter
Richard Hofstadter was an American public intellectual of the 1950s, a historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University...
for a multi-volume history of the United States, one that would provide a summary of the political, social, and cultural history of the nation for a general audience. The project proved to be more challenging than initially envisioned, however. New fields of historical study emerged in the 1960s, and personal issues intervened for some of the authors. Among the historians connected with the series at one time or another were Willie Lee Rose, Morton Keller, John Lewis Gaddis
John Lewis Gaddis
John Lewis Gaddis is a noted historian of the Cold War and grand strategy, who has been hailed as the "Dean of Cold War Historians" by The New York Times. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is also the official biographer of the seminal 20th...
, Stanley Elkins
Stanley Elkins
Stanley M. Elkins is the Sydenham Clark Parsons Professor Emeritus of history at Smith College.-Slavery:Slavery : A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life , based on Elkin's doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, was theoretically innovative and enormously influential in the...
and Eric McKitrick
Eric McKitrick
Eric Louis McKitrick was an American historian.-Life:He graduated from Columbia University in 1949, an M.A. in 1951 and a Ph.D. in 1959....
. Though some of these historians completed books as a result of their respective assignments, none of them was published as part of the series.
The first volume published in the series, Robert Middlekauff's The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, finally was released in 1982 (ISBN 0-19-502921-6). Included on the rear dust jacket flap to the original hardcover edition was a projected outline for the series at that point:
- Volume 1: Colonial America by T. H. Breen
- Volume 2: The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff
- Volume 3: Early National America, 1789–1815 by Gordon S. WoodGordon S. WoodGordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution. His book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 won a 1970 Bancroft Prize...
- Volume 4: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846 by Charles Grier SellersCharles Grier SellersCharles Grier Sellers is an American historian.-Life:He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University.He was a member of the Southern Historical Association....
- Volume 5: The Civil War by James M. McPhersonJames M. McPhersonJames M. McPherson is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, his most famous book...
- Volume 6: Reconstruction and Industrial America by George M. Fredrickson
- Volume 7: Early 20th Century America, 1900–1930 by William H. Harbaugh
- Volume 8: The New Deal, 1930–1945 by David M. KennedyDavid M. Kennedy (historian)David M. Kennedy is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University and the Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West...
- Volume 9: Postwar America, 1945–1968 by William E. Leuchtenburg
- Volume 10: The American Economy by Stuart Bruchey
- Volume 11: American Diplomacy by Norman A. Graebner
McPherson's volume on the Civil War and its causes was subsequently published in 1988 as Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Two more volumes followed under Woodward's editorship. Volume 10, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974 by James T. Patterson, was published in 1997, while Volume 9, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945, was published in 1999. Sellers's contribution was published separately from the series in 1991 as The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846 (ISBN 0-19-503889-4), supposedly for its excessive focus on the economics of the era, and the volume reassigned to another historian.
Kennedy editorship
After Woodward's death in 1999, David Kennedy assumed the editorship of the series. Since the start of his tenure, in addition to the revised edition of Middlekauf's book, four more volumes have appeared: Volume 11, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore by James T. Patterson, which was published in 2005 (ISBN 0-19-512216-X), Volume 5, Daniel Walker HoweDaniel Walker Howe
Daniel Walker Howe is a historian of the early national period of American history and specializes in the intellectual and religious history of the United States. He is Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus at Oxford University in England and Professor of History Emeritus at the University...
's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (ISBN 0-19-507894-2), which was released in 2007, Volume 12, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (ISBN 0-19-507822-5) by George C. Herring, published in October 2008, and Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (ISBN 978-0195039146) by Gordon S. Wood, published in September 2009.
Published volumes
At this time, the following volumes have already been published (in publication order):- Volume 3: Robert MiddlekauffRobert MiddlekauffRobert Middlekauff is a professor emeritus of colonial and early United States history at UC Berkeley. He is perhaps best known for The Glorious Cause, a history of the American Revolutionary War.-Bibliography:...
, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (1982; 2nd ed., 2005) - Volume 6: James M. McPhersonJames M. McPhersonJames M. McPherson is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, his most famous book...
, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988) - Volume 10: James T. PattersonJames T. Patterson (historian)James T. Patterson is an American historian, Ford Foundation Professor of History emeritus at Brown University.-Awards:* 1966 Frederick Jackson Turner Award for Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-1939* 1968 Guggenheim Fellow *...
, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974 (1996) - Volume 9: David M. KennedyDavid M. Kennedy (historian)David M. Kennedy is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University and the Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West...
, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 (1999) - Volume 11: James T. PattersonJames T. Patterson (historian)James T. Patterson is an American historian, Ford Foundation Professor of History emeritus at Brown University.-Awards:* 1966 Frederick Jackson Turner Award for Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-1939* 1968 Guggenheim Fellow *...
, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore (2005) - Volume 5: Daniel Walker HoweDaniel Walker HoweDaniel Walker Howe is a historian of the early national period of American history and specializes in the intellectual and religious history of the United States. He is Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus at Oxford University in England and Professor of History Emeritus at the University...
, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (2007) - Volume 12: George Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (2008)
- Volume 4: Gordon S. WoodGordon S. WoodGordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution. His book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 won a 1970 Bancroft Prize...
, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)
A volume written by H. W. Brands covering Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
America — Leviathan: America Comes of Age, 1865–1900 — was also to be published as part of the series, but was withdrawn in 2006 and published outside the Oxford History series in October 2010 as American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900.
Volume 9 was also published in 2003 as two smaller volumes:
- The American People in the Great Depression: Freedom from Fear, Part One (ISBN 978-0195168921)
- The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part Two (ISBN 978-0195168938)
Volumes to be published
The following volumes are currently in progress:- Volume 1: Peter Mancall covering the discovery and colonization of America
- Volume 2: Fred AndersonFred Anderson (historian)Fred Anderson is an American historian of early North American history.Anderson received his B.A. from Colorado State University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1981. He has taught at Harvard and at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he is currently Professor of History...
and Andrew Cayton, Imperial America, 1674–1764 (publication expected in 2013) - Volume 7: Richard WhiteRichard White (historian)Richard White is an American historian, a past President of the Organization of American Historians, and the author of influential books on the American West, Native American history, and environmental history...
, The Long Crisis, covering Reconstruction, the rise of industry, and the development of the West - Volume 8: Bruce Schulman, Reawakened Nation: The Birth of Modern America, 1896–1929
Complete listing
| Volume | Author | Title | Release date | Pages | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 | Peter Mancall | American Origins | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Volume 2 | Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton | Imperial America, 1674–1764 | 2013 (projected) | TBA | TBA |
| Volume 3 | Robert Middlekauff | The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789‡ | 2005 (2nd ed.) | 760 | |
| Volume 4 | Gordon S. Wood | Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815‡ | 2009 | 800 | |
| Volume 5 | Daniel Walker Howe | What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815–1848† | 2007 | 928 | |
| Volume 6 | James M. McPherson | Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era Battle Cry of Freedom (book) Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era is a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the American Civil War and its causes published in 1988 by James M. McPherson. Writing for The New York Times, historian Hugh Brogan described it as "...the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across... † |
1988 | 904 | |
| Volume 7 | Richard White | The Long Crisis | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Volume 8 | Bruce Schulman | Reawakened Nation: The Birth of Modern America, 1896–1929 | TBA | 736 | |
| Volume 9 | David M. Kennedy | Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945† | 1999 | 990 | |
| Volume 10 | James T. Patterson | Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974 | 1996 | 880 | |
| Volume 11 | James T. Patterson | Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore | 2005 | 448 | |
| Volume 12 | George Herring | From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 | 2008 | 1056 |
† = won Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
‡ = nominated for Pulitzer Prize
Reception
For the most part, the publication of each volume has been greeted with laudatory reviews. Three of the volumes (McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, Kennedy's Freedom from Fear, and Howe's What Hath God Wrought) were awarded the Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for History upon their publication. Middlekauff's Glorious Cause and Wood's Empire of Liberty were finalists for the prize in 1982 and 2010, respectively. Patterson's Grand Expectations also received the 1997 Bancroft Prize
Bancroft Prize
The 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...
in American history.
However, in October 2006 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, the magazine's book editor, Benjamin Schwarz, condemned some of the titles in the Oxford History of the United States as "bloated and intellectually flabby." He argued that volumes 9 through 11 in the series compared unfavorably to the entries in the New Oxford History of England, maintaining that the volumes "lack the intellectual refinement, analytic sharpness, and stylistic verve" of their English counterparts. Schwarz wrote his review when only five volumes in the series were available, and he specifically exempted two (McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Middlekauff's Glorious Cause) from his criticisms.
External links
- Oxford University Press: Oxford History of the United States
- Powells.com: Book Review — Oxford History of the United States #03: The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, 1 March 2005