David M. Kennedy (historian)

For the banker and politician, see David M. Kennedy. For the author and criminologist, see David M. Kennedy (criminologist).

David Michael Kennedy (born July 22, 1941 in Seattle, Washington) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus at Stanford University and the former Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. Professor Kennedy's scholarship is notable for its integration of economic analysis and cultural analysis with social history and political history.

Kennedy is responsible for the recent editions of the popular history textbook The American Pageant. He is also the current editor (since 1999) of the Oxford History of the United States series. This position was held previously by C. Vann Woodward. Earlier in his career, Kennedy won the Bancroft Prize for his first book Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger (1970), and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his book World War I, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980). He was the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History in 1995-6. He won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History for Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (1999).

Biography

Born in Washington, Kennedy received his A.B. in history from Stanford University and his MA and PhD from Yale University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

According to the jacket copy of The American Pageant, Kennedy is married and the father of two sons and a daughter.

Books

• Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger (1970)
  • John Gilmary Shea Prize, 1970
  • Bancroft Prize, 1971
• Social Thought in America and Europe, co-editor with Paul A. Robinson (1970)
• Progressivism: The Critical Issues, editor (1971)
• The American People in the Depression (1973)
• The American People in the Age of Kennedy (West Haven: Pendulum Press, 1973)
• The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, co-author with Thomas A. Bailey and Lizabeth Cohen (1979; 14th ed. 2010).
• Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980)
  • Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 1981
• Power and Responsibility: Case Studies in American Leadership, co-editor with Michael Parrish (1986)
• The American Spirit: United States History as Seen by Contemporaries, co-editor with Thomas A. Bailey (1983)
• Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (1999) (Vol. 9 in The Oxford History of the United States)

Awards and honors

• Pulitzer Prize, 2000
• Francis Parkman Prize, 2000
• Ambassador's Prize, 2000
• California Gold Medal for Literature, 2000

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Kennedy on Freedom From Fear, June 20, 1999.
  • C-SPAN Q&A interview with Kennedy, November 11, 2007