Roy Alan Rosenzweig (August 6, 1950 – October 11, 2007) was 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 ...

at George Mason University in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. He was the founder and director of the Center for History and New Media from 1994 until his death in October 2007 from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

, aged 57.

Early life and education

Rosenzweig was born on August 6, 1950 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and was raised in

Bayside, Queens Bayside is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Whitestone to the northwest, the Long Island Sound and Little Neck Bay to the northeast, Douglaston to the east, Oakland Gardens to the south, and Fresh Meado ...

. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College in 1971 and received a fellowship to study history at St John's College, Cambridge. He earned his Ph.D. in history from

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 1978.

Career

Rosenzweig was the co-author, with Elizabeth Blackmar, of ''The Park and the People: A History of Central Park'', which won several awards including the 1993 Historic Preservation Book Award and the 1993 Urban History Association Prize for Best Book on North American Urban History. He also co-authored (with David Thelen) ''The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life'', which won prizes from the

University of Mary Washington The University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the Fredericksburg Teachers College, the institution was named Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Ball Washi ...

Center for Historic Preservation and the

American Association for State and Local History The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) is a non-profit association for state and local history, with a primary focus on history professionals, history volunteers, museums, historical societies, and other history-related organi ...

. He was co-author, with Steve Brier and Joshua Brown, of the American Social History Project's CD-ROM, ''Who Built America? '', which won James Harvey Robinson Prize of

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

for its “outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history.” Rosenzweig's other books include ''Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870–1920'' and edited volumes on history museums (''History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment''), history and the public (Presenting the Past: Essays on History and the Public), history teaching (Experiments in History Teaching), oral history (''Government and the Arts in 1930s America''), and recent history (''A Companion to Post-1945 America''). His most recent book (co-authored with Daniel Cohen) is ''Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web'', He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has lectured in Australia as a Fulbright Professor. He recently served as Vice-President for Research of the

. As founder and director of the Center for History and New Media (CHNM), he was involved in a number of different

digital history Digital history is the use of digital media to further historical analysis, presentation, and research. It is a branch of the digital humanities and an extension of quantitative history, cliometrics, and computing. Digital history is commonly d ...

projects including websites on U.S. history, historical thinking, the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, the history of science and technology, world history, and the September 11, 2001, attacks. All of these are available through the CHNM web site. His work in digital history was recognized in 2003 with the Richard W. Lyman Award (awarded by the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

and the Rockefeller Foundation) for “outstanding achievement in the use of information technology to advance scholarship and teaching in the humanities.” In June 2006 he published an article about

English Wikipedia The English Wikipedia is, along with the Simple English Wikipedia, one of two English-language editions of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was founded on January 15, 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition, and, as of , has the most arti ...

in the ''

Journal of American History ''The Journal of American History'' is the official academic journal of the Organization of American Historians. It covers the field of American history and was established in 1914 as the ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', the official j ...

''
"Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past".
The article discusses the pros and cons of using Wikipedia as a historical, reliable source and attempts to answer questions on Wikipedia's history and its impact on historical writing.

Selected bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * Rosenzweig, Roy. (2006) “Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past.” Journal of American History 117–146 *

References

External links

* ttps://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202489.html Washington Post obituary
thanksroy.org
Memorial website
Many of Roy Rosenzweig's essays
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenzweig, Roy 1950 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Deaths from lung cancer George Mason University faculty Harvard University alumni 20th-century American male writers Columbia College (New York) alumni Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge