Ray Allen Billington Prize

The Ray Allen Billington Prize is given biennially by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) for the best book about American frontier history. The “American frontier” includes all of North and South America. It includes all pioneer experiences from 1492 forward. It also includes comparisons between American frontiers and others outside the western hemisphere. First given in 1981, this prize honors Professor Ray Allen Billington, OAH President, 1962-1963. A 3-member committee, chosen by the OAH President for a two-year term, selects the winner who receives $1000. The first award was made posthumously to John D. Unruh who died in 1976.[1] No award was made in 1997, and two awards were made in 1999.[2]

Year Winner Affiliation Title
1981 John D. Unruh[3] Bluffton University The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60[4]
1983 David J. Weber Southern Methodist University The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico
1985 Francis Paul Prucha, S.J. Marquette University The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians
1987 Paul Andrew Hutton University of New Mexico Phil Sheridan and His Army
1989 Albert L. Hurtado[5] Arizona State University Indian Survival on the California Frontier
1991 James N. Gregory[6] University of Washington American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California
1993 Daniel K. Richter University of Pennsylvania The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization
1995 John Putnam Demos Yale University The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America
1997 No award given
1999co Malcolm J. Rohrbough[7] University of Iowa Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American Nation
1999co Elliott West[8] University of Arkansas The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado
2001 Gunther Peck[9] Duke University Reinventing Free Labor: Padrones and Immigrant Workers in The North American West, 1880-1930
2003 Martha A. Sandweiss[10] Amherst College Print the Legend: Photography and the American West
2005 Colin G. Calloway[11] Dartmouth College One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark
2007 Pablo R. Mitchell[12] Oberlin College Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in Modernizing New Mexico, 1880-1920
2009 Matthew Klingle[13] Bowdoin College Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle
2011 Louise Pubols[14] Oakland Museum of California The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California

References

  1. ^ http://www.bluffton.edu/library/coll/ms/unruh (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  2. ^ http://www.oah.org/activities/awards/billington/index.html (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  3. ^ http://www.bluffton.edu/library/coll/ms/unruh (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  4. ^ http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/83dzq7cb9780252063602.html (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  5. ^ http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/H/Albert.L.Hurtado-1 (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  6. ^ http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/gregory%20page/index.htm (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  7. ^ http://www.uiowa.edu/~history/People/Inactive%20Colleagues/rohrbough.html (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  8. ^ http://history.uark.edu/index.php/faculty_bio/20 (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  9. ^ http://history.duke.edu/people?Gurl=%2Faas%2Fhistory&Uil=peckgw&subpage=profile (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  10. ^ https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/masandweiss (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  11. ^ http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nas/facstaff/calloway.html (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  12. ^ http://new.Oberlin.edu/dotAsset/178846 (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  13. ^ http://www.bowdoin.edu/faculty/m/mklingle/ (last retrieved 02/16/2011)
  14. ^ http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780873282406 (last retrieved 08/25/2011)