Oxford History of the United States

From Wikipedia, the free 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.

Contents

[edit] Woodward editorship

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.[1]

The first volume published in the series, Robert Middlekauf's The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, finally was released in 1982 (ISBN 0-19-502921-6; a revised edition was published in 2005). Included on the rear dust jacket flap to the hardcover edition was a projected outline for the series at that point:

  • Volume 1: Colonial America by T. H. Breen
  • Volume 2: Middlekauf's The Glorious Cause
  • Volume 3: Early National America, 1789-1815 by Gordon S. Wood
  • Volume 4: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846 by Charles G. Sellers
  • Volume 5: The Civil War by James M. McPherson
  • 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. Kennedy
  • 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 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 released 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.

[edit] 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, two more volumes have 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), and Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (ISBN 0-19-507894-2), which was released in 2007.

At this time, the following volumes have already been published:

  • Volume 3: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (1982, 2nd ed., 2005)
  • Volume 5: Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
  • Volume 6: James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988)
  • Volume 9: David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (1999)
  • Volume 10: James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (1996)
  • Volume 11: James T. Patterson, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore (2005)

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 slated to be published separately.[2]

The following volumes are currently in progress:

  • Volume 1 Peter Mancall covering the discovery and colonization of America
  • Volume 2: Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton, Imperial America, 1674-1764
  • Volume 4: Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815[3] (currently slated for release in 2009)
  • Volume 8: Bruce Schulman, Reawakened Nation: The Birth of Modern America, 1896–1929[4]
  • Volume 12: George Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (to be published in September 2008)

[edit] 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 Prize for History upon their publication, and Middlekauf's Glorious Cause was a finalist for the prize in 1982. 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 most of the titles in the Oxford History of the United States as "bloated and intellectually flabby." He argued that the series compared unfavorably to the entries in the New Oxford History of England, maintaining that that the volumes "lack the intellectual refinement, analytic sharpness, and stylistic verve" of their English counterparts.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The rejection bin of history - The Boston Globe
  2. ^ http://www.hornfischerliterarymanagement.com/clients/hbrands.shtml
  3. ^ The Directory of Research and Researchers at Brown: Gordon Wood
  4. ^ http://www.bu.edu/history/schulman.pdf
  5. ^ The Path of Least Resistance

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources