Alan Shaw Taylor | |
|---|---|
 Taylor in 2019 | |
| Born | (1955-06-17)June 17, 1955 (age 70) Portland, Maine, U.S. |
| Education | Colby College (BA) Brandeis University (PhD) |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Notable work | William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 |
| Awards | 1996Bancroft Prize, 1996Beveridge Award, 1996Pulitzer Prize, 2014Pulitzer Prize |
Alan Shaw Taylor (born June 17, 1955) is an American historian and scholar who, most recently, was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History at theUniversity of Virginia.[1] A specialist in the early history of the United States, Taylor has written extensively about thecolonial history of the United States, theAmerican Revolution, and theearly American Republic. Taylor has received twoPulitzer Prizes and theBancroft Prize, and was also a finalist for theNational Book Award for non-fiction. In 2020 he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[2]
Taylor was born on June 17, 1955 inPortland, Maine, the son of Ruel Taylor, Jr. and author Virginia C. Taylor. He graduated fromColby College, inWaterville, Maine, in 1977, and earned hisPhD fromBrandeis University in 1986.
Before going to the University of Virginia, Taylor taught at theUniversity of California, Davis[3] andBoston University.
Taylor is best known for his contributions tomicrohistory, exemplified in hisWilliam Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (1996). Usingcourt records, land records, letters and diaries, Taylor reconstructed the background of founderWilliam Cooper fromBurlington, New Jersey, and theeconomic,political andsocial history related to theland speculation, founding andsettlement ofCooperstown, New York, after theAmerican Revolutionary War.
He appears in Ken Burns's PBS seriesThe American Revolution (2025).
Taylor is among a generation of historians committed to the revival ofnarrative history, incorporating many historical methods (political, social, cultural, and environmental, among others) to understand humans' experiences of the past.
Taylor'sThe Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution (2006) explored the history of theborders betweenCanada and theUnited States in the aftermath of the American Revolution, as well asIroquois attempts to keep control of some lands.[4] His bookThe Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (2010) also addressed this borderland area and strategies pursued by various groups.[5] TheWar of 1812 has also been characterized as a continuation of the Revolutionary War.
Taylor is one of five authors to have twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History. He won it forWilliam Cooper's Town andThe Internal Enemy.
Contributing to the anthologyOur American Story (2019), Taylor addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative and offered a skeptical approach, arguing, "There is no single unifying narrative linking past and present in America. Instead, we have enduring divisions in a nation even larger and more diverse than that of 1787. The best we can do today is to cope with our differences by seeking compromises, just as the Founders had to do, painfully and incompletely in the early Republic."[6]
Taylor has written a series of four book whose "plural titles," he writes, "convey a core attempt to see our history as continental rather than simply the isolate story of one nation".[7] They areAmerican Colonies,American Revolutions,American Republics, andAmerican Civil Wars.
