Daniel Walker Howe (born January 10, 1937) is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who specializes in the early national period of U.S. history, with a particular interest in its intellectual and religious dimensions. He was Rhodes Professor of

American History The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

in England (from 1992 to 2002 then Emeritus) and Professor of History Emeritus at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. He won the 2008

Pulitzer Prize for History The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history ...

for '' What Hath God Wrought'' (2007), his most famous book. He was president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic in 2001, and is a Fellow of both the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

Early life and education

Howe was born in Ogden, Utah and graduated from East High School in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He received his Bachelor of Arts at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1959, magna cum laude in American history and literature, and his Ph.D. in history at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1966. Howe's connection with

began when he matriculated at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

to read modern history in 1960, receiving his M.A. in 1965.

Career

Howe has taught at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

(1966–73),

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

(1973-92), where he chaired the history department, and Oxford (1992-2002). In 2011 he spent a semester as a visiting professor at

Wofford College Wofford College is a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was founded in 1854. The campus is a national arboretum and one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the America ...

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Off ...

. In 1989–1990 Howe was

Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–194 ...

at Oxford and a fellow of

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. In 1992 he became a permanent member of the Oxford history faculty and a fellow of

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...

until his retirement in 2002. Brasenose College, Oxford elected him an Honorary Member of its Senior Common Room.

Awards and honors

He received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

in 2014.

Personal life

He currently resides in Sherman Oaks, California, and is married with three grown children and six grandchildren as of February 2015.

Books

* ''The Unitarian Conscience: Harvard Moral Philosophy, 1805-1861'' (Harvard University Press, 1970) * ''Victorian America'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976) * ''The Political Culture of the American Whigs'' (University of Chicago Press, 1979) * ''Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln'' (Harvard University Press, 1997) * '' What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), volume 5 of the ''

Oxford History of the United States 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. Volumes Series overview Woodward editorship The series originated in the 1950s wit ...

References

External links

Daniel W. Howe
Professor Emeritus, UCLA * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Daniel Walker 1937 births Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of the United States Intellectual historians Pulitzer Prize for History winners Writers from Ogden, Utah Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Fellows of St Catherine's College, Oxford Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford Historians from California American male non-fiction writers