William H. Chafe (/ˈtʃeɪf/; born January 28, 1942) 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 ...

, and currently Alice Mary Baldwin Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University in

Durham, NC Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th-m ...

Career

Professor Chafe received his PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1971, and is the author of numerous notable historical texts on

United States history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

. Chafe's research interests focus on

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...

and

racial equality Racial equality is a situation in which people of all races and ethnicities are treated in an egalitarian/equal manner. Racial equality occurs when institutions give individuals legal, moral, and political rights. In present-day Western societ ...

. His publications include: ''Bill and Hillary: The Politics of the Personal'' (2012); ''The Rise and Fall of the American Century: The United States from 1890 to 2008'' (2008); ''The Unfinished Journey: American Since World War II'' (

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 ...

, 2006); ''Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America'' (

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 retir ...

, 2005);'' Never Stop Running'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...

, 1998); ''The Paradox of Change: American Women in the 20th Century'' (Oxford University Press, 1991); ''Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom'' (Oxford University Press, 1981). ''Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom'' won The First Annual

Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (formerly the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, or RFK Center) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit human rights advocacy organization. It was named after United States Senator Robert F. Kenned ...

Book award given in 1981 to a novelist who "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes - his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity."

References

External links

*
''Booknotes'' interview with Chafe on ''Never Stop Running: Allard Lowenstein and the Struggle to Save American Liberalism'', January 30, 1994.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chafe, William Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of the United States Duke University faculty Columbia University alumni American male non-fiction writers