Benjamin Nathans | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1962 (age 63–64) |
| Relatives | Daniel Nathans (father) |
| Awards | 2025Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction 2003Koret Jewish Book Award |
| Academic background | |
| Education | BA,Yale University MA, PhD, 1995,University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | Beyond the pale: the Jewish encounter with Russia, 1840-1900 (1995) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Pennsylvania Indiana University Bloomington |
Benjamin Nathans (born 1962) is an American historian. He is the Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History at theUniversity of Pennsylvania. His book,To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement received the 2025Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and won the 2025Pushkin House Russian Book Prize.
Nathans was born in 1962[1] to parents Joanne andDaniel Nathans. His father was a microbiologist who won the 1978Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[2] After completing his schooling at thePark School of Baltimore in 1979,[3] Nathans earned hisBachelor of Arts degree atYale University and his PhD at theUniversity of California, Berkeley.[4] Immediately following his graduation in 1984, Nathans spent time studying at theUniversity of Tübingen in West Germany.[5]
As a graduate student, Nathans spent the spring of 1987 attendingLeningrad State University as part of theCouncil on International Educational Exchange program.[6] He also spent the summer of 1989 atHebrew University of Jerusalem.[7] Nathans finished his PhD dissertation under the supervision ofReggie Zelnik.[8]
Upon completing his PhD in 1995, Nathans became anassistant professor of History and Jewish Studies atIndiana University Bloomington.[7] He remained there until 1998, when he became a faculty member in the Department of History at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.[4] As the M. Mark and Esther K. Watkins Assistant Professor in the Humanities, Nathans publishedBeyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia in 2002. The book, which won the 2003Koret Jewish Book Award, focused on Jews who lived, literally or figuratively, outside thePale of Settlement in Russia.[9][10]
Nathans’ book,To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement received the 2025Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.[11] It was also shortlisted for theCundill History Prize.[12]
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