James C. Klotter is an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

who has served as the State Historian of Kentucky since 1980. Klotter is also a history professor at

Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...

and one of the co-authors of Kentucky's staple history book, ''A New History of Kentucky''. Klotter received a Ph.D. in History from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, and he has been awarded honorary degrees from

Eastern Kentucky University Eastern Kentucky University (Eastern or EKU) is a public university in Richmond, Kentucky. As a regional comprehensive institution, EKU also maintains branch campuses in Corbin, Hazard, Lancaster, and Manchester and offers over 40 online u ...

and

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

. Klotter was the executive director of the

Kentucky Historical Society The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) was originally established in 1836 as a private organization. It is an agency of the Kentucky state government that records and preserves important historical documents, buildings, and artifacts of Kentucky's ...

for many years, and he was an associate editor of the Kentucky Encyclopedia. In 2015, the Boyd County High School chapter of the Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society was named in his honor. In 2022, has was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame for 2022 by the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. As of 2017, Klotter lives with his wife in Lexington, Kentucky.

Major works

*''William Goebel: The Politics of Wrath''. Lexington, Kentucky. 1977. *''A New History of Kentucky''. University Press of Kentucky. Lexington, Kentucky. 1997. *''A Concise History of Kentucky''. *''History Mysteries''. *''Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950''. *''Kentucky Justice, Southern Honor, and American Manhood: Understanding the Life and Death of Richard Reid''. *''The Breckinridges of Kentucky''. *''Faces of Kentucky''. *''Genealogies of Kentucky Families, from the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. Volume O – Y''. *''Appalachian Ghost Stories: Tales from Bloody Breathitt''. Klotter wrote the foreword.

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Writers from Lexington, Kentucky History of Kentucky Georgetown College (Kentucky) alumni University of Kentucky alumni American male non-fiction writers {{US-historian-stub