Peter S. Onuf (born 1946) is an American historian and professor known for his work on

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

and

Federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

. In 1989, he was named the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, a chair he held until retiring in 2012.University of Virginia bio page
/ref> The chair's previous occupants included Jefferson biographers Dumas Malone and Merrill D. Peterson; he was succeeded by Alan Taylor.

Life

A native New Englander, Onuf graduated from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, where he worked with eminent early American historian Jack P. Greene. He taught at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Worcester Polytechnic Institute The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a Private university, private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1865, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities and now h ...

, and

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

. In 2008, he held the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History chair at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. Onuf also acted as a cohost for the radio show '' BackStory with the American History Guys''. In 2014, he taught a free online

course on

Publications

*''(with Annette Gordon-Reed) "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination,'' Liveright, 2016. *''The Mind of Thomas Jefferson''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007. *(with Nicholas G. Onuf). ''Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War'', Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. *ed. (with James Horn and Jan Ellen Lewis). ''The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002. *''Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001. *(with Leonard Sadosky) ''Jeffersonian America''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell's, 2001. *ed. (with Jan Ellen Lewis). ''Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture''. University Press of Virginia, 1999. *(with Edward L. Ayers, Patricia N. Limerick, and Stephen Nissenbaum). ''All Over the Map: Rethinking Region and Nation in the United States''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. *ed. ''Jeffersonian Legacies''. University Press of Virginia, 1993. *(with Nicholas G. Onuf), ''Federal Union, Modern World: The Law of Nations in an Age of Revolution, 1776–1814''. Madison House, 1993. * ''Patriots, redcoats, and loyalists'' New York : Garland, 1991. *(with Cathy D. Matson), ''A Union of Interests: Politics and Economics in Revolutionary America'', University Press of Kansas. 1990. *(with Andrew R. L. Cayton), ''The Midwest and the Nation''. Indiana University Press, 1990. *''Statehood and Union: A History of the Northwest Ordinance''. Indiana University Press, 1987. *''Origins of the Federal Republic: Jurisdictional Controversies in the United States, 1775–1787''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Onuf, Peter S. Living people Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Virginia faculty 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians Historians of the United States Year of birth missing (living people) American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers