The Merle Curti

Merle Curti

Merle Curti was a leading American historian. He taught a large number of PhD students at the University of Wisconsin, and was a leader in developing the fields of social history and intellectual history. As a "Progressive" historian he was deeply committed to democracy, and to the Turnerian...

 Award is awarded annually by 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...

 for the best book in American social and/or American intellectual history. A committee of 5 members of the Organization of American Historians chooses the winners from published monographs submitted by the author(s). Committee members represent the entire spectrum of American history and serve a one-year term. Beginning with the awards of 2004, the Committee may select 1 book "winner" in American intellectual history

Intellectual history

Note: this article concerns the discipline of intellectual history, and not its object, the whole span of human thought since the invention of writing. For clarifications about the latter topic, please consult the writings of the intellectual historians listed here and entries on individual...

, 1 book "winner" in American social history

Social history

Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...

, and may list other "finalists" in each field. "Winners" split a $1000 cash award. Although not explicitly stated, "American" refers to the "United States of America" alone.

Year	Winner	Title
1978	Henry F. May Henry F. May Henry Farnum May is Margaret Byrne Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley .-Life:Henry May was the son of Henry F. May, a lawyer, and May May. Born in Denver, Colorado, he was reared in Berkeley, California and spent a formative year in Europe with his family as the youngest of...	The Enlightenment in America (Oxford University Press)
1979	Garry Wills Garry Wills Garry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin...	Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (Doubleday)
1980	Paul E. Johnson Paul E. Johnson Paul E. Johnson is an American historian, and professor emeritus at University of South Carolina.-Life:He graduated from University of California at Berkeley, and from University of California, Los Angeles, with a Ph.D...	A Shopkeeper's Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 (Hill and Wang)
	Thomas Dublin Thomas Dublin Thomas Dublin is an American historian, and editor. He is Distinguished Professor of History at Binghamton University.-Life:He graduated from Harvard College, with a B.A. in chemistry, and from Columbia University, with a Ph.D....	Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860 (Columbia University Press)
1981	James T. Schleifer James T. Schleifer James Thomas Schleifer is an American historian, and emeritus Dean of the Mother Irene Gill Library, and professor at the College of New Rochelle.-Life:He graduated from Yale University with a Ph.D. in 1972. He also lectures at Yale University.-Works:...	The Making of Tocqueville's Democracy in America (University of North Carolina Press)
1982	George M. Fredrickson George M. Fredrickson George M. Fredrickson was the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of U.S. History at Stanford University from 1984 until the time of his retirement in 2002...	White Supremacy: A Comparative Study of American and South African History
1983	Norman Fiering Norman Fiering Norman Fiering is an American historian, and Director and Librarian, Emeritus, of the John Carter Brown Library.-Life:...	Moral Philosophy at Seventeenth-Century Harvard: A Discipline in Transition (Institute of Early American History by the University of North Carolina Press)
1984	Dino Cinel Dino Cinel Dino Cinel is an Italian-American historian, and was a Distinguished Professor of Italian-American Studies at City University of New York.-Life:In 1988, he was a Roman Catholic priest at St...	From Italy to San Francisco: The Immigrant Experience (Stanford University Press)
1985	Leo P. Ribuffo Leo P. Ribuffo Leo P. Ribuffo is an American historian] and Society of the Cincinnati George Washington Distinguished Professor at George Washington University....	The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War (Temple University Press)
1986	Kerby A. Miller Kerby A. Miller Kerby A. Miller is an American historian, and Curator's Professor at University of Missouri.-Life:He graduated from Pomona College, and from University of California, Berkeley with an MA and Ph.D. in 1976....	Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford University Press)
1987	James T. Kloppenberg James T. Kloppenberg James T. Kloppenberg is an American historian, and Charles Warren Professor of American History, at Harvard University.-Life:...	Uncertain Victory: Social Democracy and Progressivism in European and American Thought, 1870-1920 (Oxford University Press)
1988	Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Jacquelyn Dowd Hall is an American historian, and Julia Cherry Spruill Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.-Life:She graduated from Columbia University with an MA and Ph.D... , James Leloudis, Robert Korstad, Mary Murphy, Lu Ann Jones and Christopher B. Daly	Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (University of North Carolina Press)
	Marcus Rediker Marcus Rediker Marcus Rediker is an American professor, historian, writer, and activist for a variety of peace and social justice causes. He graduated with a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and attended the University of Pennsylvania for graduate study, earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in history...	Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World: 1700-1750 (Cambridge University Press)
1989	Edmund S. Morgan Edmund Morgan Edmund Sears Morgan , an eminent authority on early American history, is Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught from 1955 to 1986.-Life:...	Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (Norton)
1990	James H. Merrell James Merrell James Hart Merrell is the Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History at Vassar College. Professor Merrell is one of the leading scholars of early American history, and has written extensively on Native American history during the colonial era. Professor Merrell is one of only five historians to be...	The Indians' New World: Catawbas and their Neighbor from European Contact thru the Era of Removal (Institute of Early American History by the University of North Carolina Press)
1991	David D. Hall David D. Hall David D. Hall is an American historian, and was Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, at Harvard Divinity School.-Works:* The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century, Omohundro Institute, 1972 -Editor:...	Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England (Knopf)
	John L. Brooke John L. Brooke -Life:Brooke graduated from Cornell University in 1975, and from the University of Pennsylvania, with an M.A. and Ph.D. in 1982.He taught at Franklin & Marshall College, Amherst College, and Tufts University.He most recently teaches at Ohio State University....	The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worcester County, Massachusetts 1713-1861 (Cambridge University Press)
1992	David R. Roediger David Roediger David R. Roediger is a well-established professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . His research interests include the construction of racial identity, class structures, labor studies, and the history of American radicalism...	The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (Verso)
1993	Robert B. Westbrook Robert B. Westbrook Robert Brett Westbrook is an American historian, and Professor of History at the University of Rochester.-Life:...	John Dewey and American Democracy (Cornell University Press)
1994	W. Fitzhugh Brundage W. Fitzhugh Brundage William Fitzhugh Brundage is an American historian, and William B. Umstead Professor of History, at University of North Carolina.He graduated from the University of Chicago, and from Harvard University with an MA and Ph.D, in 1988....	Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930 (University of Illinois Press)
1995	Wilfred M. McClay Wilfred M. McClay Wilfred M. McClay is an American historian, a noted conservative public intellectual, and SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga....	The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America
1996	George Chauncey George Chauncey George Chauncey is a professor of history at Yale University. He is best known as the author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 .-Life and works:...	Gay New York: Gender, Urban Cultural, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (Basic Books)
1997	Lance Banning Lance Banning Lance Banning was an American historian who specialized in studying the politics of the United States' founding fathers. He taught mostly at the University of Kentucky.-Life:...	The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic (Cornell University Press)
	Ann Douglas	Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920's (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
1998	Robert A. Orsi Robert A. Orsi -Life:Orsi was born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City. He majored in religion and sociology at Trinity College and graduated salutatorian in 1975, receiving both a Danforth and Watson Scholarship. He attended graduate school in religion at Yale University where his prize-winning...	Thank You, St. Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes (Yale University Press)
1999	Rogers M. Smith Rogers M. Smith Rogers M. Smith is an American historian, and Political Science professor at the University of Pennsylvania.-Life:He graduated from Michigan State University, and from Harvard University, with a Ph.D., in 1980.He taught at Yale University, from 1980 to 2001....	Civic Ideals
2000	Woody Holton Woody Holton Abner Linwood "Woody" Holton, III is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Richmond in Virginia and is a member of the Richmond Research Institute.-Life:He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and received his PhD from Duke University....	Forced Founders
	Walter Johnson Walter Johnson (historian) Walter Johnson is a leading American historian specializing in the history of slavery, capitalism, and imperialism.-Life:Walter Johnson was born in Columbia, Missouri, the first son of Walter Johnson, Sr. and Mary Angela Johnson...	Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Harvard University Press)
2001	Kimberly K. Smith Kimberly K. Smith -Life:She graduated from University of Michigan with a Ph.D., and from Boalt School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley.She teaches at Carleton College....	The Dominion of Voice: Riot, Reason, and Romance in Antebellum Politics
2002	David W. Blight David W. Blight David W. Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University. Blight was the Class of 1959 Professor of History at Amherst College, where he taught for 13 years.-Life:...	Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
2003	Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz is the Sydenham Clark Parsons Professor of American Studies and History, emerita, at Smith College. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University...	Rereading Sex: Battles over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century America
2004	Colin G. Calloway Colin G. Calloway -Life:He is professor of history and Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College.-External links:*...	One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark (History of the American West)
	George M. Marsden George Marsden George M. Marsden is an historian who has written extensively on the interaction between Christianity and American culture, particularly on Christianity in American higher education and on American Evangelicalism...	Jonathan Edwards: A Life
	Steven Hahn Steven Hahn Steven Hahn is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor in American History at the University of Pennsylvania.-Life:Educated at the University of Rochester, where he worked with Eugene Genovese and Herbert Gutman, Hahn received his Ph.D. from Yale University. His dissertation was overseen by...	A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)
2005	Steven Mintz Steven Mintz Steven Mintz , is an American historian at Columbia University and directs the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Center.-Life:...	Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood
	Michael O'Brien Michael O'Brien (historian) -Life:He was an undergraduate and research student at University of Cambridge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He taught at University of Michigan, University of Arkansas, Miami University. He teaches at Jesus College, Cambridge.-Awards:...	Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860
2006	Elizabeth Borgwardt Elizabeth Borgwardt -Life:She graduated from Cambridge University with a BA and M.Phil., from Harvard Law School, with a J.D., and from Stanford University with a Ph.D.She worked as a mediator and arbitrator, and was a senior fellow at the Center for Conflict and Negotiation at Stanford University.On June 26, 1993,...	A New Deal for the World: America's Vision for Human Rights
	Thomas Dublin Thomas Dublin Thomas Dublin is an American historian, and editor. He is Distinguished Professor of History at Binghamton University.-Life:He graduated from Harvard College, with a B.A. in chemistry, and from Columbia University, with a Ph.D....	The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century
2007	Scott Reynolds Nelson Scott Reynolds Nelson Scott Reynolds Nelson is the Legum Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. He is a historian of the American Civil War and the Gilded Age...	Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend
	Moon-Ho Jung	Coolies and Cane: Race, Labor, and Sugar in the Age of Emancipation (The Johns Hopkins University Press)
2008	Marcus Rediker Marcus Rediker Marcus Rediker is an American professor, historian, writer, and activist for a variety of peace and social justice causes. He graduated with a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and attended the University of Pennsylvania for graduate study, earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in history...	The Slave Ship: A Human History
2009	Vincent Brown Vincent Brown (historian) Vincent Brown is a Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.-Life:He graduated from University of California San Diego, and Duke University with a Ph.D...	The Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (Harvard University Press)
	Pekka Hämäläinen Pekka Hämäläinen Pekka Hämäläinen is an associate professor of history at University of California at Santa Barbara and an author.-Life:He graduated from University of Helsinki, with a Ph.D. in 2001.He taught at Texas A&M University from 2002 to 2004....	The Comanche Empire (Yale University Press)
2010	Laura Dassow Walls Laura Walls Laura Dassow Walls is an American professor of English literature and currently the William P. and Hazel B...	The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America (The University of Chicago Press)
	Seth Rockman	Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore (The Johns Hopkins University Press)