David Edwin Harrell Jr. (February 22, 1930 – March 15, 2021) was an American historian best known for his scholarship of religion in the United States. Harrell was born in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

to parents David Edwin (a physician) and Mildred Lee Harrell (a homemaker). He attended David Lipscomb College as an undergraduate, and

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

as a graduate student. He received a Ph.D. in 1962. Harrell was a professor at Auburn University, where he served as the Breeden Eminent Scholar of Southern History. He retired in 2006. He wrote biographies of

Oral Roberts Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christian televangelist, ordained in both the Pentecostal Holiness and United Methodist churches. He is considered one of the forerunners of t ...

Pat Robertson Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, former presidential candidate, and former Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocates a conservative Christian ...

, and Homer Hailey, as well as other works about

Pentecostalism Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

and the Charismatic movement. In 2006, he published ''Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People'', a college textbook that discusses the effects of religion in the history of the United States. Harrell died on March 15, 2021.

References

1930 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American historians Vanderbilt University alumni Lipscomb University alumni Auburn University faculty People from Nashville, Tennessee People from Auburn, Alabama Writers from Jacksonville, Florida 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Historians from Tennessee Historians from Alabama Historians from Florida American textbook writers American historians of religion American members of the Churches of Christ {{US-historian-stub