Life and education
Nash was born in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, suburb of Merion where he attended Lower Merion High School. He attended Princeton University, where he earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees (BA 1955, PhD 1964). He served in the U.S. Navy from 1955–58 on the ''Academic career
After serving as Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School (1959–62) and completing his doctoral degree, he joined the faculty of Princeton as an instructor in 1964 and an assistant professor in 1965-66. He moved to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was an assistant professor, 1966–68; associate professor, 1969–72, and full professor from 1972 to 1994. He was Dean of the Council for Educational Development from 1980 to 1984 and Dean of Undergraduate and Intercollege Curricular Development at UCLA from 1984 to 1991.Historical arguments
Nash was prominent in emphasizing the importance of marginalized groups, especially the poor, the working-class, African-Americans, and Native Americans, in helping shape American history. His studies of the American Revolution emphasize the roles of seamen, tenant farmers, city artisans, slaves, Native Americans, and women. Historian Edmund Morgan has challenged Nash, arguing that the movements Nash emphasizes were "disparate, local, and mostly unsuccessful". Morgan says that the main impetus for independence came from the elites in the Continental Congress.Edmund Morgan, "Reply," in ''The New York Review'History profession
Nash co-directed the development of the National History Standards in U.S. and World History from 1992–94, when they were published by theWorks
In addition to the many books he authored, co-authored, or co–edited, Nash made chapter contributions to more than thirty books and published forty-five articles and over eighty book reviews, op–ed essays, and comments. His article "Poverty and Poor Relief in PreRevolutionary Philadelphia" (''William and Mary Quarterly'', Jan. 1976) won the Daughters of Colonial Wars' prize for the journal's best article for 1976.As author
* ''Quakers and Politics: Pennsylvania, 1681–1726'' (1968) * ''Class and Society in Early America'' (1970) * ''Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America'' (1974) * ''The Private Side of American History: Readings in Everyday Life'' (1975) * ''The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness and the Origins of the American Revolution'' (1979) * ''Race, Class and Politics: Essays on American Colonial and Revolutionary Society'' (1986) * ''Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720–1840'' (1988) * ''Race and Revolution: The Inaugural Merrill Jensen Lectures'' (1990) * ''American Odyssey: The United States in the Twentieth Century'' (1991) *As co-author
* ''The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society'' (1986) * ''Retracing the Past: Readings in the History of the American People'' (1986) (2 volumes) * ''Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in Pennsylvania, 1690–1840'' (1991) * ''History on Trial: National Identity, Culture Wars, and the Teaching of the Past'' (1997)As co-editor
* ''The Great Fear: Race in The Mind of America'' (1970) * ''Struggle and Survival in Colonial America'' (1981) * ''Lessons From History: Essential Understandings and Historical Perspectives Students Should Acquire'' (1992) * ''Empire, Society, and Labor: Essays in Honor of Richard S. Dunn'' (1997)References
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