James Merrell

James H. Merrell, the Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History at Vassar College, was born and raised in Minnesota. Professor Merrell is one of the leading scholars of early American history, and has written extensively on Native American history during the colonial era. Professor Merrell is one of only five historians to be awarded the Bancroft Prize twice.

Education

Merrell earned his undergraduate degree at Lawrence University and continued his studies at Oxford University. He received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1982.

Career

Merrell was a Fellow at The Newberry Library Center for the History of the American Indian in Chicago and the Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia. He has also received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has been at Vassar since 1984.

Published Books

* "The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal" (won the Bancroft Prize)
* "Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier" (won the Bancroft Prize, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize)

Awards

* Rhodes Scholar
* Guggenheim Fellowship
* The Frederick Jackson Turner Award
* The Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians
* The Bancroft Prize (twice)
* Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize