| James Oakes | |
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| Born | December 19, 1953 |
James Oakes (born December 19, 1953 Bronx) is an American historian, and is a Distinguished Professor of History and Graduate School Humanities Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where he teaches history courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, Slavery, the Old South, Abolitionism and U.S and World History. [1]
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Oakes attended Catholic schools in New York City, before enrolling at Baruch College, CUNY, where he earned a B.A. in history in 1974. He taught previously at Princeton University and Northwestern University.
Oakes earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, under the late Kenneth Stampp, author of The Peculiar Institution among other notable titles. Oakes has written and published many articles, encyclopedia entries, and Op-Eds.[2] His 2008 book, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics was a co-winner of the 2008 Lincoln Prize. [3]
Oakes' book is notable for presenting a new framework with which to compare Lincoln and Douglass and their views of race. The Lincoln Prize jury also noted that Oakes succeeded in creating a scholarly work which was accessible to the general public.
His most recent work focuses on Emancipation and how it was implemented throughout the Southern states.
Oakes currently lives in Manhattan with his wife, Deborah Bohr, a health research administrator, and their son, Daniel.