Alan Taylor (historian)

Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Alan Shaw Taylor (born June 17, 1955) is an American historian and scholar who, most recently, was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A specialist in the early history of the United States, Taylor has written extensively about the colonial history of the United States, the American Revolution, and the early American Republic. Taylor has received two Pulitzer Prizes and the Bancroft Prize, and was also a finalist for the National Book Award for non-fiction. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and education

Taylor was born on June 17, 1955 in Portland, Maine, the son of Ruel Taylor, Jr. and author Virginia C. Taylor. He graduated from Colby College, in Waterville, Maine, in 1977, and earned his PhD from Brandeis University in 1986.

Career

Before going to the University of Virginia, Taylor taught previously at the University of California, Davis<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Boston University.

Taylor is best known for his contributions to microhistory, exemplified in his William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (1996). Using court records, land records, letters and diaries, Taylor reconstructed the background of founder William Cooper from Burlington, New Jersey, and the economic, political and social history related to the land speculation, founding and settlement of Cooperstown, New York, after the American Revolutionary War.

Taylor is among a generation of historians committed to the revival of narrative history, incorporating many historical methods (political, social, cultural, and environmental, among others) to understand humans' experiences of the past.

Taylor's The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution (2006) explored the history of the borders between Canada and the United States in the aftermath of the American Revolution, as well as Iroquois attempts to keep control of some lands.<ref>Faculty page at University of California Davis http://history.ucdavis.edu/people/szalanta</ref> His book The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (2010) also addressed this borderland area and strategies pursued by various groups.<ref>The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies: Alan Taylor: 9781400042654: Amazon.com: Books</ref> The War of 1812 has also been characterized as a continuation of the Revolutionary War.

In the list of multiple Pulitzer Prize winners, Taylor is one of five authors to have twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History.

Contributing to the anthology Our American Story (2019), Taylor addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative and offered a skeptical approach, arguing, "There is no single unifying narrative linking past and present in America. Instead, we have enduring divisions in a nation even larger and more diverse than that of 1787. The best we can do today is to cope with our differences by seeking compromises, just as the Founders had to do, painfully and incompletely in the early Republic."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Awards

• 1996 Bancroft Prize for William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic
• 1996 Beveridge Award for William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic
• 1996 Pulitzer Prize for William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2007 Cox Book Prize for The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2013 National Book Award for Nonfiction finalist for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832<ref name=final2013>"2013 National Book Award Finalists Announced". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2013-10-21.</ref><ref name=nba2013>"2013 National Book Awards". NBF. Retrieved 2013-10-21.</ref>
• 2014 Pulitzer Prize for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia: 1772-1832<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2014 Merle Curti Award for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia: 1772-1832
• 2014 George Washington Book Prize finalist for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia: 1772-1832
• 2017 George Washington Book Prize finalist for American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804
• 2021 New-York Historical Society book prizes, Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History, for American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850<ref>

Scholar of the Early Republic Wins American History Book Prize, New York Times</ref>

Works

Books as author

• Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier 1760-1820, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• American Colonies: The Settling of North America, New York: Viking/Penguin, 2001. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• Writing Early American History, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, USA: 2012. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Template:ISBN Template:OCLC
• American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804, W. W. Norton & Company, 2016. Template:ISBN
• Thomas Jefferson's Education, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019. Template:ISBN
• American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783–1850, W. W. Norton & Company, 2021. Template:ISBN
• American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850–1873, W. W. Norton & Company, 2024. Template:ISBN

Books as contributor

• "One Nation Divisible," Template:Cite book

External links

• "The Pulitzer Guy", Colby College Colby Magazine, Winter 2002
• History Department profile, University of California, Davis
• Taylor on The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library on May 26, 2011
• Template:C-SPAN