Oxford History of the United States
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The Oxford History of the United States is an ongoing multivolume narrative history of the United States published by Oxford University Press.
Initially begun in the 1970s under the editorship of C. Vann Woodward, the third volume of the planned series, Robert Middlekauf's The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, was published in 1982 (ISBN 0-19-502921-6; a revised edition was published in 2005). Volume 6, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, was published in 1988 (ISBN 0-19-503863-0); its author, James M. McPherson, subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize in History for the book. 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 and was awarded the Bancroft Prize in American History. Subsequently, volume 9, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, won the Pulitzer Prize after its publication in 1999.
After Woodward's death, David M. Kennedy (historian) took over the editorship of the series. Since the start of his tenure, in addition to the revised edition of Middlekauf's book, one new volume has appeared: volume 11, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore by James T. Patterson, which was published in 2005 (ISBN 0-19-512216-X). In addition, the following volumes are currently in progress:
- Gordon S. Wood, The U.S. from 1789 to 1815 (volume 4)
- Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The United States, 1815-1848 (volume 5)
- H. W. Brands, Leviathan: America Comes of Age, 1865-1900 (due in October 2007) (volume 7)
- Bruce Schulman, Reawakened Nation: The Birth of Modern America, 1896–1929 (volume 8)
According to an article in the December 24, 2006 Boston Globe by Christopher Shea, "The Rejection Bin of History," the H.W. Brands work is NOT going to be published as a part of the "Oxford History of the United States." Neither Oxford general editor Susan Ferber nor the series editor, David Kennedy, would comment as to why the book was being pulled. H.W. Brands has not made a comment either. The article did mention that Ferber has a completed manuscript from Howe, and another manuscript from George Herring, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Kentucky on American foreign policy from 1776 to 2004. The article also quotes Wood as saying that "the end is in sight" for his volume. Finally, Fred Anderson of the University of Colorado and Andrew Cayton of Miami University of Ohio have been assigned the volume on the colonial period from 1672 to 1763.
[edit] External links
- Oxford University Press: Oxford History of the United States
- Amazon: Listmania! — Oxford History of the United States (so far in print)
- Barnes & Noble: Oxford History of the United States Series
- Powells.com: Book Review — Oxford History of the United States #03: The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, The Atlantic Monthly, 1 March 2005
[edit] Sources
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195029216
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195038630
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019512216X
- http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10107
- http://www.history.ucla.edu/howe/
- http://www.hornfischerliterarymanagement.com/clients/hbrands.shtml
- http://www.bu.edu/history/schulman.pdf
- http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/12/24/the_rejection_bin_of_history/
