Steven Hahn
Encyclopedia
Steven Hahn is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor in American History at the University of Pennsylvania
.
, where he worked with Eugene Genovese and Herbert Gutman, Hahn received his Ph.D. from Yale University
. His dissertation was overseen by C. Vann Woodward
, and later Howard R. Lamar
.
He has written on the South, slavery and emancipation, the Populist Era, rural cultures, and social migration. His first book was The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 (Oxford University Press, 1983). This study was important because it provided a detailed and original account of the political ideology of white southern small farmers. At the time this group, the majority of the American South, had received relatively little scholarly attention. Hahn presented the southern yeomen as non-capitalist in crucial respects, and describes how they were undermined by the increasing commercialization of Southern agriculture after the Civil War.
Several historians have noted that a union of black and white workers is presented as a much more likely possibility in A Nation Under our Feet
: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration than it is in Hahn's first volume, The Roots of Southern Populism, in which the Populists were presented as having had almost no interest in a genuinely biracial polity.
Hahn has won a number of teaching awards and has been supported in his research by the Guggenheim Foundation
, the American Council of Learned Societies
, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
at Stanford.
He lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
.
Life
Educated at the University of RochesterUniversity of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
, where he worked with Eugene Genovese and Herbert Gutman, Hahn received his Ph.D. from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. His dissertation was overseen by C. Vann Woodward
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 later Howard R. Lamar
Howard R. Lamar
Howard Roberts Lamar is a historian of the American West, and a former president of Yale University.-Biography:He was born in 1923 in Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S., and was drawn into history in part by his rich family history which includes two United States Supreme Court justices and the second...
.
He has written on the South, slavery and emancipation, the Populist Era, rural cultures, and social migration. His first book was The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 (Oxford University Press, 1983). This study was important because it provided a detailed and original account of the political ideology of white southern small farmers. At the time this group, the majority of the American South, had received relatively little scholarly attention. Hahn presented the southern yeomen as non-capitalist in crucial respects, and describes how they were undermined by the increasing commercialization of Southern agriculture after the Civil War.
Several historians have noted that a union of black and white workers is presented as a much more likely possibility in A Nation Under our Feet
A Nation Under Our Feet
A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book written in 2003 by Steven Hahn...
: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration than it is in Hahn's first volume, The Roots of Southern Populism, in which the Populists were presented as having had almost no interest in a genuinely biracial polity.
Hahn has won a number of teaching awards and has been supported in his research by the Guggenheim Foundation
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
, the American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences is an American interdisciplinary research body in Stanford, California focusing on the social sciences and humanities . Fellows are elected in a closed process, to spend a period of residence at the Center, released from other duties...
at Stanford.
He lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Awards
- 1980 Allan Nevins Prize of the Society of American Historians, for his doctoral dissertation, The Roots of Southern Populism
- 1984 Frederick Jackson Turner AwardFrederick Jackson Turner AwardThe Frederick Jackson Turner Award, is given each year by the Organization of American Historians for an author's first book on American history.It was started in 1959, by Mississippi Valley Historical Association, as the Prize Studies Award....
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...
, for The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890 - 2004 Pulitzer Prize for HistoryPulitzer Prize for HistoryThe Pulitzer Prize for History has been awarded since 1917 for a distinguished book upon the history of the United States. Many history books have also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography...
, for A Nation Under our FeetA Nation Under Our FeetA Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book written in 2003 by Steven Hahn... - 2004 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...
, for A Nation Under our FeetA Nation Under Our FeetA Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book written in 2003 by Steven Hahn... - Merle Curti AwardMerle Curti AwardThe Merle Curti Award is awarded annually by the Organization of American Historians 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...
in Social History from 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...
.