Michael Wayne is a Canadian historian of the United States at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. He is a senior fellow at
University College
In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...
. As an undergraduate, Wayne studied at the University of Toronto and
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
. He received his PhD from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
where he studied under
C. Vann Woodward
Comer Vann Woodward (November 13, 1908 – December 17, 1999) was an American historian who focused primarily on the American South and race relations. He was long a supporter of the approach of Charles A. Beard, stressing the influence of un ...
.
Wayne writes primarily about the American South and race relations in the United States. His major works include ''The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860–1880 '' dealing, in part, with impact of
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
and intermarriage between the White elite, ''Death of an Overseer: Reopening a Murder Investigation from the Plantation South'', and ''Imagining Black America''. ''An Old South Morality Play: Reconsidering the Social Underpinnings of the Proslavery Ideology '' challenged popular views of class structure in the slaveholding South. ''The Reshaping of Plantation Society'' won the 1983 Saloutos Book Award of the Agricultural History Society. In ''The black population of Canada West on the eve of the American Civil War: A reassessment based on the manuscript census of 1861'' he disputes the narrative that the typical Black resident of the Canadian West were fugitive slaves.
He also wrote a satirical novel dealing with the follies of academia and the peculiarities of Canadian and American identities; titled ''Lincoln's Briefs,'' it has been published by Canadian Scholars' Press.
Michael Wayne is the son of
Johnny Wayne
Johnny Wayne (born Louis Weingarten; May 28, 1918 – July 18, 1990) was a Canadian comedian and comedy writer best known for his work as part of the comedy duo Wayne and Shuster alongside Frank Shuster.
The son of a successful clothing manuf ...
, who was a member of the Canadian comedy duo
Wayne and Shuster.
Nonfiction books
*''The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860–1880''
*''Death of an Overseer: Reopening a Murder Investigation from the Plantation South''
*''Imagining Black America. An Old South Morality Play: Reconsidering the Social Underpinnings of the Proslavery Ideology''
See also
*
Natchez Mississippi
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wayne, Michael
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century Canadian historians
Canadian male non-fiction writers
Historians of the United States
Academic staff of the University of Toronto
Yale University alumni