Gary Nash

Professor and Director,  National Center for History in the Schools

Education:  Princeton University, B.A., 1955; Ph.D., 1964

Professional Career:

Professor at  the University of California, Los Angeles (1974 - Present ); Associate Professor, (1968 -1974), Assistant Professor (1966 - 1968)

Director of the National Center for History in the Schools (1994-Present ); co-chaired the National History Standards Project from 1992-1996.

Past positions include: Dean of  Undergraduate and Intercollege Curricular Development; University of California, Los Angeles; President, Organization of American Historians; Dean, Council on Educational Development, University of California, Los Angeles; Assistant Professor, Department of History, Princeton University.

Publications: Books

The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America (New York: Viking, 2005; London: Jonathan Cape, 2006)

The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006).

Editor, Atlas of American History (New York: Facts-on-File, forthcoming)

Quakers and Politics: Pennsylvania, 1681-1726 (1968) (Won prize from the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, for best book in American History.)

Class and Society in Early America (1970)

The Great Fear: Race in The Mind of America, co-editor (1970)

Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America, also published in Spanish. (1974)

The Private Side of American History: Readings in Everyday Life (1975)

The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political  Consciousness and the Origins of the American Revolution (1979) (Finalist, Pulitzer Prize in History; Commonwealth Club of California, Silver Prize in Literature)

Struggle and Survival in Colonial America, co-editor (1981) -- also published in Spanish (1987)

Race, Class and Politics: Essays on American Colonial and Revolutionary Society (1986)

The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, coauthor (1986)

Retracing the Past: Readings in the History of the American People, (2 vols), coauthor (1986)

Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840 (1988) (Prize for best book in 1988 from Society for the History of the Early American Republic)

Race and Revolution: The Inaugural Merrill Jensen Lectures (1990)

Freedom  by Degrees: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in Pennsylvania, 1690--1840, coauthor (1991)

American Odyssey: The United States in the Twentieth Century (1991)

Lessons From History: Essential Understandings and Historical Perspectives Students Should Acquire, co-editor (1992)

History on Trial: National Identity, Culture Wars, and the Teaching of the Past, coauthor (1997)

Empire, Society, and Labor: Essays in Honor of  Richard S. Dunn, co-editor (1997)

Forbidden Love: The Secret History of Mixed-Race America (1999)

First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (2001)

The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America (New York: Viking, 2005; London: Jonathan Cape, 2006)

Other Publications:

Prize for Daughters of Colonial Wars for best article in William and Mary Quarterly for 1976 ("Poverty and Poor Relief in Pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia")

Chapter contributions to more than thirty books

More than forty-five articles, and over eighty book reviews, op-ed essays, and comments.

Awards, Honors, and Fellowships

Research grants (University of California Institute of Humanities and American Philosophical Society) and fellowships (Guggenheim Memorial and American Council of Learned Society.)

Elected member of American Antiquarian Society,  Society of American Historians, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society.

Two commencement addresses; more than seventy-five invited lectures

UCLA Distinguished Teacher Award

University of California Distinguished Emeriti Award

Founders Medal, Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Defense of Academic Freedom Award, National Council for Social Studies

Distinguished Service Award, Organization of American Historians

Medal and Elected Fellows, Historical Society of Southern California National Park Service Award for Contributions to Public History

Professional Activities

Served on numerous editorial advisory boards, faculty advisory committees, prize and nominating committees.

Guest Historian, Historical Society of Pennsylvania permanent exhibit, 1989-1997

Founding Member and Board of Trustees, National Council for History Education, 1990- present, Vice-Chair, 1992- present

American Jewish Committee Delegation to Ukraine Ministry of Education, 1992

President, Organization of American Historians, 1994-95

Primary History Consultant, Schlessinger Production series in United States History, 1996-97

Chief Historian Advisor, Oregon Public Broadcasting "American History in the Making" 20-part U.S History Professional Development Series

Historical Consultant and Writer, "Lights of Liberty," sound and light tour, Philadelphia, PA, 1999- present

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