Marc Egnal (born December 11, 1943) is an American historian, academic and a professor of history at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, Toronto, Canada. He completed his B.A. at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

in 1965, M.A. in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1974 from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. He has written on the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

and

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. He is the author of four books on American history including ''A Mighty Empire: The Origins of the American Revolution'' (1988); ''Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions Have Shaped North American Growth'' (1996); and ''New World Economies:the Growth of the Thirteen Colonies and Early Canada'' (1998). His book, ''Clash of Extremes: The Economic Origins of the Civil War'' (2009), argues that "more than any other reason, the evolution of the Northern and Southern economies explains the Civil War." Most recently, Egnal has turned his attention to US novels and the value of Big Data in understanding this literature. See his essay, "Crunching Literary Numbers," in the Gray Matter column of the New York Times, July 12, 2013.

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Faculty Profile
at York University {{DEFAULTSORT:Egnal, Marc 1943 births Living people Canadian people of American descent 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of the United States Historians of Canada Canadian non-fiction writers Academic staff of York University University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Swarthmore College alumni 21st-century American male writers