Roy Alan Rosenzweig (August 6, 1950 – October 11, 2007) was an American historian. He was the founder and director of the Center for History and New Media at

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

from 1994 until his death in October 2007 from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

, aged 57. After his death, the center was renamed the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media in his honor.

Early life and education

Roy Alan Rosenzweig was born on August 6, 1950, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and was raised in Bayside, Queens. He graduated from Columbia College with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

, ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'', in 1971 and received a fellowship to study history at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

. In 1978, Rosenzweig earned his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in history from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Established in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Fredericksburg, the institution later became known as Fredericksbu ...

Center for Historic Preservation and the American Association for State and Local History. 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, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

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 Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

and has lectured in Australia as a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

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

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

) 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 the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on 15 January 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition. English Wikipedia is hosted alongside o ...

in the '' Journal of American History''
"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 in Virginia George Mason University faculty Harvard University alumni 20th-century American male writers Columbia College (New York) alumni Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge