American History in an Atlantic Context: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered Before the University of Oxford on 3 June 1993

by Daniel Walker Howe

American history is usually studied within a nationalistic framework, with the independence and expansion of the United States defining the subject. This has led to distortions of perspective (eg the religious revivals of the mid-18th century being viewed as precursors of the American Revolution). As nation states increasingly recognize their interdependence, a different approach to the history of the United States is needed which demonstrates the interconnectedness of the United States with other countries. Such an approach benefits not only political, diplomatic, and military history, but social, economic and cultural history as well. This lecture provides examples of how American history could be better understood by placing it within this broader context.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

A specialist in the intellectual and religious history of the United States during the antebellum era, Daniel Walker Howe was Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus at Oxford University in England and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received the Pulitzer Prize for History for What Hath God Wrought, his most famous book. He was president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic in 2001 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Howe graduated from East High School (Denver, Colorado), and received his Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University, magna cum laude in American History and Literature in 1959, and his Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley in 1966.

Howe's connection with Oxford University began when he matriculated at Magdalen College to read Modern History in 1960; he took his M.A. in 1965. In 1989–1990, he was Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford and a Fellow of Queen's College. In 1992, he became a permanent member of the Oxford History Faculty and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford until his retirement in 2002. Brasenose College elected him an Honorary Member of their Senior Common Room.