American historian
Richard Slotkin
Born Richard Sidney Slotkin
(1942-11-08 ) November 8, 1942 (age 82) Occupation(s) Cultural critic, historian, novelist Education Institutions Wesleyan University
Richard Sidney Slotkin (born November 8, 1942)[ 1] is a cultural critic and historian. He is the Olin Professor of English and American Studies , Emeritus at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut , and, since 2010, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .[ 2] [ 3] Slotkin writes novels, predominantly historical ones, alongside his historical research, and uses the process of writing the novels to clarify and refine his historical work.[ 4]
Education and career
Richard Sidney Slotkin was born on November 8, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York . He received a B.A. degree from Brooklyn College in 1963 and a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University in 1967.[ 3] [ 5]
He started teaching at Wesleyan University in 1966 and helped establish the school's American studies and film studies program.[ 6] He remained at Wesleyan until his retirement in 2009.[ 5]
Awards
Regeneration Through Violence received the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association as the Best Book in American History (1973) and was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1974.[ 7] [ 8] Gunfighter Nation was a National Book Award Finalist in 1993.[ 9] In 1995, Slotkin received the American Studies Association 's Mary C. Turpie Award for his contributions to teaching and program-building.[ 10] His novel Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln won the 2000 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction .[ 11]
In 1976, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree in art education from Wesleyan University.[ 5]
His 2024 book A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America was longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction .[ 12]
Works
Regeneration Through Violence: the Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860 (Wesleyan University Press , 1973)
The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War (Atheneum , 1980)
Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, (Atheneum, 1985)
The Return of Henry Starr (Atheneum, 1988)
Gunfighter Nation: Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (Atheneum, 1992)
Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln (Henry Holt and Company , 2000)
Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality (Henry Holt and Company, 2005)
No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 (Random House , 2009)
The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution (W. W. Norton & Company , 2012)[ 13]
Greenhorns: Stories (Leapfrog Press , 2018)
A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America (Belknap Press, 2024)
References
External links
International National Other