James T. Patterson (born February 12, 1935, in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

) 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 stu ...

, who was the Ford Foundation Professor of History at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

for 30 years. He was educated at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His research interests include political history, legal history, and social history, as well as the history of medicine, race relations, and education. In 1981–1982, he was the

Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in American history at the University of Oxford, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–194 ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Early life

Patterson was born and raised in Connecticut, son of J. Tyler Patterson, a member of the

Connecticut State House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

who went on to serve as its speaker.” He attended the

Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational University-preparatory school#North America, preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It i ...

before enrolling at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

, where he earned a B.A. in 1957. He then served for 6 months in the U.S. Army before taking a job at the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'', where, he says, “I was responsible for writing 25 inches of news every day, and I learned to write quickly, using strong verbs, because I knew that the audience was made up of American adults at the breakfast table. This developed my style of writing, which seeks to be strongly narrative.” In fall of 1960, Patterson entered

, earning an M.A. in 1961 and a Ph.D. in history in 1964.

Career

He started his teaching career at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, moving to

in 1972 until his retirement in 2002. His first three books (1967–1972) were "straightforward political history. I had always been very interested in politics before moving to academia." For this work Patterson received the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the

Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...

(1966), two fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. He was also the recipient of an Indiana University Teaching Award and the Ohioana Award, a book prize for his 1972 volume on Taft. In the 1970s, Patterson noticed a trend away from the academic writing of political history and toward an emphasis on societal issues such as race, class, and gender. In keeping with this trend, in 1987 he published ''The Dread Disease: Cancer and Modern American Culture'', chronicling the societal reaction to the disease from the 1880s to the 1980s, and exploring the social tensions and the persistence of fear caused by its specter, and how it reveals divisions in American life. In 1997, Patterson published ''Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974'', volume 10 of the ''

Oxford History of the United States The Oxford History of the United States (1982–present) is an ongoing multi-volume narrative history of the United States published by Oxford University Press. Volumes Series overview Woodward editorship The series originated in the 1950s wit ...

'', covering political, cultural, and economic events of the postwar period through the resignation of U.S. President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. It was praised by historians and readers alike for its balanced commentary and readability. In his next four books, Patterson tackled the civil rights case of

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

, the period from the

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...

era to the

Bush v. Gore ''Bush v. Gore'', 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, th ...

election of 2000, the ''

Moynihan Report ''The Negro Family: The Case For National Action'', commonly known as the Moynihan Report, was a 1965 report on black poverty in the United States written by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an American scholar serving as Assistant Secretary of Labor u ...

'', and the seminal year 1965.

Notable quotations

“The historian helps people understand the ‘pastness of the past.’ We do this with thorough research from original sources. I don’t believe that history can be instrumental as a guideline as to how you should act. But it will help you understand the immense variety and oddity of human nature.”

Awards

* 1966 Frederick Jackson Turner Award for ''Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933–1939'' * 1968

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

* 1997

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

in American History for ''Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974''

Works

*James T. Patterson (November 24, 2012)
"Everything you know about the 1960s is wrong"
*James T. Patterson (2012),

' *James T. Patterson (2010), ''Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle over Black Family Life from LBJ to Obama'' *James T. Patterson (2009)
"The Civil Rights Movement: Major Events and Legacies"
*James T. Patterson (2006)

* * *James T. Patterson (2001), ''Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy'' * * * (1981, 1986, 1994, 2000) *James T. Patterson (1973)

(4th ed. 1994; 5th ed. 1999) *James T. Patterson (1972), ''Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft'' *James T. Patterson (1967), ''The New Deal and the States: Federalism in Transition'' * (reprint 2008 )

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, James T. 1935 births 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Brown University faculty Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Hotchkiss School alumni Living people Williams College alumni Bancroft Prize winners Historians from Connecticut American male non-fiction writers