Michael Gedaliah Kammen (October 25, 1936 – November 29, 2013) was an American professor of American cultural history in the Department of History at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. At the time of his death, he held the title "Newton C. Farr professor emeritus of American history and culture". Kammen was born in 1936 in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, grew up in the

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

area, and was educated at the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

and

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 ...

, where he received his Ph.D. in 1964 after studying under Bernard Bailyn. He began teaching at Cornell upon completion his graduate studies at Harvard and taught until retiring to emeritus status in 2008. Beginning as a scholar of the colonial period of American history, his interests eventually broadened to include American legal, cultural, and social issues of the 19th and 20th centuries. One of his first major books, '' People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization'', won the

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 ...

in 1973. A later work, ''A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American Culture'' (1986), won the

Francis Parkman Prize The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of American ...

and the Henry Adams Prize. In this work, Kammen describes the American people's evolving conceptions of the U.S. Constitution and of constitutional governance, stressing both mechanical and organic conceptions of constitutional development over time. Kammen was active in organizations advancing the study of history, and served as president of the Organization of American Historians for the 1995-96 year. He was the father of

UC 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 uni ...

professor

Daniel Kammen Daniel Merson Kammen is an American scientist, renewable energy expert, and former government figure. He currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Energy in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a ...

Major works

* '' People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization'' (1973) * ''Colonial New York: A History''. Millwood, NJ: K+O Press, 1975. * ''The Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History''. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. (edited by Kammen) * ''A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American Culture'' (1986) * ''A Season of Youth: The American Revolution in the Historical Imagination'' (1988) * ''Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture'' (1991) * ''Contested Values: Democracy and Diversity in American Culture'' (1995) * ''In The Past Lane: Historical Perspectives on American Culture'' (1997) * ''American Culture, American Tastes: Social Change and the 20th Century'' (1999) * ''A Time to Every Purpose: The Four Seasons in American Culture'' (2004) * ''Digging Up the Dead: A History of Notable American Reburials'' (2010)

References

External links

Michael Kammen faculty page
* *
''Booknotes'' interview with Kammen on ''American Culture, American Tastes: Social Change and the 20th Century'', October 24, 1999.

Michael G. Kammen
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

Authorities — with 52 catalog records * Segelken, H. Roger.
American historian Michael G. Kammen dies at 77
" ''Cornell Chronicle'', Dec. 2, 2013

American historians Cornell University Department of History faculty History of the Thirteen Colonies Historians of the United States Pulitzer Prize for History winners George Washington University alumni Harvard University alumni 1936 births 2013 deaths {{US-historian-stub