Thomas Cleveland Holt (born November 30, 1942) is an American historian, who is the

James Westfall Thompson James Westfall Thompson (1869–1941) was an American historian specializing in the history of medieval and early modern Europe, particularly of the Holy Roman Empire and France. He also made noteworthy contributions to the history of literacy, Hist ...

Professor of American and African American History at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. He has produced a number of works on the people and descendants of the

African Diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

. He served as president of the American Historical Association in 1994. He taught at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

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 ...

, the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He was born in

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...

. He was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2016.

Awards

In 1978 Holt was awarded the

Southern Historical Association The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sou ...

's Charles S. Sydnor Prize for his first book, ''Black Over White''. A past president of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

, Holt was a Fellow of the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

and the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washi ...

from 1987 to 1988. Holt became a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 1990. In 1994, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

named Holt to the National Council on Humanities. He was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 2003. He was a Citigroup Fellow at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...

, Germany, for Fall 2008.American Academy in Berlin
Citigroup Fellow Class of Fall 2008: Thomas Holt
/ref>

Works

''The Problem of Freedom: Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832–1938''
(

Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

), 1992, winner of the

Elsa Goveia Elsa Goveia (12 April 1925 – 18 March 1980) was born in British Guiana and became a foremost scholar and historian of the Caribbean. She was the first woman to become a professor at the newly created University College of the West Indies (UCWI) ...

Prize awarded by the Association of Caribbean Historians.
''Black Over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina During Reconstruction''
(

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic project ...

). * "Nathan I. Huggins Lectures", ''The Problem of Race in the 21st Century'' (

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

), 2000 * With Frederick Cooper and Rebecca Jarvis Scott
''Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Postemancipation Societies''
UNC Press, 2000, .
''Children of Fire: a History of African Americans''
(

Hill & Wang Hill & Wang is an American book publishing company focused on American history, world history, and politics. It is a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Hill & Wang was founded as an independent publishing house in 1956 by Arthur Wang (1917/1 ...

), 2010 *
The Movement: The African American Struggle for Civil Rights
' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

), 2021, .

References

External links

Faculty Profile
on the University of Chicago's website.

at the American Historical Association. * Guy Emerson Mount
"When Scholars Cry: Celebrating The Career Of Thomas C. Holt"
AAIHS. {{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Thomas C. African-American academics Black studies scholars 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers University of Chicago faculty Historians of the United States MacArthur Fellows Howard University faculty Harvard University faculty Presidents of the American Historical Association University of California, Berkeley faculty University of Michigan faculty Living people 1942 births Members of the American Philosophical Society Historians from California American male non-fiction writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American people African-American male writers