The Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions was established at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

on 5 February 1944 from a sum of £44,000 received from the Syndics of the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

in 1943 and augmented by a further £5,000 in 1946. The title of the chair was changed to the Pitt Professorship of American History and Institutions in 1951.database of Cambridge University offices and officers
The professorship is unusual in that tenure is for a period of one year only.

List of Pitt Professors of American History and Institutions

*1945–46 Dexter Perkins *1946–47 No election *1947–48

Henry Steele Commager Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States. In the 19 ...

*1948–49 Roy Franklin Nichols *1949–50

Walt Whitman Rostow Walt Whitman Rostow (October 7, 1916 – February 13, 2003) was an American economist, professor and political theorist who served as National Security Advisor to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1969. Rostow worked ...

*1950–51 John Donald Hicks *1951–53

Ralph Henry Gabriel Ralph Henry Gabriel (April 29, 1890 – April 25, 1987) was an American historian. He held the Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University and was the founding father of the American Studies Association. Early life and education ...

*1952–53

Avery Odelle Craven Avery Odelle Craven (August 12, 1885 – January 21, 1980) was an American historian who wrote extensively about the nineteenth-century United States, the American Civil War and Congressional Reconstruction from a then-revisionist viewpoint sym ...

*1953–54 Corwin D. Edwards *1954–55

John Bartlet Brebner John Bartlet Brebner (19 May 1895 – 9 November 1957) was a Canadian-born Canadian and American historian who spent the major part of his career in the United States. Born in Toronto and educated at the University of Toronto, St John's College, O ...

*1955–56 William Thomas Easterbrook *1956–57 Edward Chase Kirkland *1957–58 Paul Abraham Freund *1958–59

Richard Hofstadter Richard Hofstadter (August 6, 1916October 24, 1970) was an American historian and public intellectual of the mid-20th century. Hofstadter was the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University. Rejecting his earlier historic ...

*1959–60

Eugene Victor Rostow Eugene Victor Rostow (August 25, 1913 – November 25, 2002) was an American legal scholar and public servant. He was Dean of Yale Law School and served as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the ...

*1960–61 Clinton Lawrence Rossiter *1961–62

Richard Palmer Blackmur Richard Palmer Blackmur (January 21, 1904 – February 2, 1965) was an American literary critic and poet. Life Blackmur was born and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He attended Cambridge High and Latin School, but was expelled in 1918. An ...

*1962–63

John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Histo ...

*1963–64

John Morton Blum John Morton Blum (; April 29, 1921 – October 17, 2011) was an American historian, active from 1948 to 1991. He was a specialist in 20th-century American political history, and was a senior advisor to Yale officials. Life and career Blum was bo ...

*1964–65 Daniel Joseph Boorstin *1965–66

Thomas Childs Cochran Thomas Childs Cochran (April 29, 1902 – May 2, 1999) was an American economic historian. He was the author of several books. He is considered a pioneer in that field. Early life Thomas C. Cochran was born on April 29, 1902, in Manhattan. He re ...

*1966–67

Peter Michael Blau Peter Michael Blau (February 7, 1918 – March 12, 2002) was an American sociologist and theorist. Born in Vienna, Austria, he immigrated to the United States in 1939. He completed his PhD doctoral thesis with Robert K. Merton at Columbia Univer ...

*1967–68

James Willard Hurst James Willard Hurst (October 6, 1910 – June 18, 1997) is widely credited as the founder of the modern field of United States, American legal history. Educated at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1935, Hurst was a research assistant ...

*1968–69

William Clement Eaton William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

*1969–70 Henry David *1970–71

Walter Galenson Walter Galenson (1914 – December 30, 1999) was a professor of economics at Cornell University and a noted U.S. labor historian and economist. Education and early career He received his bachelor's degree in 1934, his Master of Science in 1935 ...

*1971–72

Henry Farnham May Henry may refer to: People * Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portuga ...

*1972–73

Morris Janowitz Morris Janowitz (October 22, 1919 – November 7, 1988) was an American sociologist and professor who made major contributions to sociological theory, the study of prejudice, urban issues, and patriotism. He was one of the founders of military ...

*1973–74

Eric Louis McKitrick Eric Louis McKitrick (July 5, 1919 – April 24, 2002) was an American historian, best known for ''The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800'' (1993) with Stanley Elkins, which won the Bancroft Prize in 1994. Life McKitrick ...

*1974–75

Archibald Cox Archibald Cox Jr. (May 17, 1912 – May 29, 2004) was an American lawyer and law professor who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was ...

*1975–76

Robert William Fogel Robert William Fogel (; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen Di ...

*1976–77 Eugene Dominic Genovese *1977–78 Paul Allan David *1978–79

Stephan Thernstrom Stephan Thernstrom (born November 5, 1934) is an American academic and historian who is the Winthrop Research Professor of History Emeritus at Harvard University. He is a specialist in ethnic and social history and was the editor of the ''Harvard ...

*1979–80

Eliot Freidson Eliot Freidson (1923 – December 14, 2005) was a sociologist and medical sociologist who worked on the theory of professions. Charles Bosk says that Freidson was a founding figure in medical sociology who played a major role in the growth and leg ...

*1980–81

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstruc ...

*1981–82 Douglass Cecil North *1982–83 Gordon Stewart Wood *1983–84 Judith N. Shklar *1984–85

Robert Huddleston Wiebe Robert Huddleston Wiebe (22 April 1930 – 10 December 2000) was an American historian and bestselling author. He specialized in American business history. Life He was born on 22 April 1930 to Richard Wiebe and Jean Huddleston Wiebe in Amaril ...

*1985–86

Peter Temin Peter Temin (; born 17 December 1937) is an economist and economic historian, currently Gray Professor Emeritus of Economics, MIT and former head of the Economics Department. Education Temin graduated from Swarthmore College in 1959 before earnin ...

*1986–87

Bernard Bailyn Bernard Bailyn (September 10, 1922 – August 7, 2020) was an American historian, author, and academic specializing in U.S. Colonial and Revolutionary-era History. He was a professor at Harvard University from 1953. Bailyn won the Pulitzer Pri ...

*1987–88

Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (May 10, 1919 – January 25, 2011) was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor at Harvard University, best known for his contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading A ...

*1988–89 Warren Forbes Kimball *1989–90

Nathan Rosenberg Nathan Rosenberg (November 22, 1927 – August 24, 2015) was an American economist specializing in the history of technology. Biography Rosenberg earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1955, and taught at Indiana University (1955–195 ...

*1990–91 Timothy Hall Breen *1991–92 Vacant *1992–93

Carol Gilligan Carol Gilligan (; born November 28, 1936) is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist, best known for her work on ethical community and ethical relationships. Gilligan is a professor of Humanities and Applied Psychology at New York Unive ...

*1993–94 Michael Fitzgibbon Holt *1994–95 Peter Gavin Wright *1995–96 Dan Thomas Carter *1996–97

John Shelton Reed John Shelton Reed (born 1942) is an American sociologist and essayist, author or editor of 23 books, most of them dealing with the contemporary American South. Reed has also written for a variety of non-academic publications such as ''The Wall Str ...

*1997–98 Sylvia R. Frey *1998–99

Stanley Engerman Stanley Lewis Engerman (born March 14, 1936) is an economist and economic historian at the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1962 from Johns Hopkins University. Engerman is known for his quantitative historical work ...

*1999–2000 James Tyler Petterson *2000–01

Randall Collins Randall Collins (born July 29, 1941) is an American sociologist who has been influential in both his teaching and writing. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various langu ...

*2001–02 James L. Roark *2002–03 Timothy W Guinnane *2003–04 Daniel T. Rodgers *2004–05

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...

*2005–06

Mary Beth Norton Mary Beth Norton (born 1943) is an American historian, specializing in American colonial history and well known for her work on women's history and the Salem witch trials. She is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor Emeritus of American History at t ...

*2006–07 Michael D. Bordo *2007–08 J Mills Thornton *2008–09 James T. Kloppenberg *2009–10

Nancy A. Hewitt Nancy A. Hewitt (born 1951) is a Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University, winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship, and a leading expert on gender history and feminism. Career After a Bachelors' degree at the State University of New York, Brockpor ...

*2010–11

Gary Libecap Gary Don Libecap (born 1946) is a Distinguished Professor of Corporate Environmental Management at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California Santa Barbara. Lib ...

*2011–12

Alan Brinkley Alan Brinkley (June 2, 1949 – June 16, 2019) was an American political historian who taught for over 20 years at Columbia University. He was the Allan Nevins Professor of History until his death. From 2003 to 2009, he was University Provost. ...

*2012–13

Jeffrey C. Alexander Jeffrey Charles Alexander (born 1947) is an American sociologist, and a prominent social theorist. He is the founding figure in the school of cultural sociology he refers to as the "strong program". Career He was born May 30, 1947, in Milwauke ...

*2013–14 David Blight *2014–15

Barry Eichengreen Barry Julian Eichengreen (born 1952) is an American economist and economic historian who holds the title of George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he ha ...

*2015–16 Margaret Jacobs *2016–17

Loïc Wacquant Loïc J. D. Wacquant (; born 1960) is a sociologist and social anthropologist, specializing in urban sociology, urban poverty, racial inequality, the body, social theory and ethnography. Wacquant is a Professor of Sociology and Researc ...

*2017–18

Ira Katznelson Ira I. Katznelson (born 1944) is an American political scientist and historian, noted for his research on the liberal state, inequality, social knowledge, and institutions, primarily focused on the United States. His work has been characterized ...

*2018–19

Naomi Lamoreaux Naomi Raboy Lamoreaux (born 1950) is an American economic historian, specializing in US business and technological history. She is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and History of Economics and History at Yale University and an emeritu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of American History and Institutions, Pitt American History and Institutions, Pitt American History and Institutions, Pitt 1944 establishments in England