Davis, David Brion 1927-

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Davis, David Brion 1927-

PERSONAL:

Born February 16, 1927, in Denver, CO; son of Clyde Brion (a writer) and Martha (a writer and painter) Davis; married second wife, Toni Hahn (an attorney), September 9, 1971; children: (first marriage) Jeremiah, Martha, Sarah; (second marriage) Adam, Noah. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Dartmouth College, A.B. (summa cum laude), 1950; Harvard University, A.M., 1953, Ph.D., 1956; Oxford University, M.A., 1969; Yale University, M.A., 1970. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Orange, CT. Office—Department of History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208324, New Haven, CT 06520-8324. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, instructor in history and Ford Fund for the Advancement of Education intern, 1953-54; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, assistant professor, 1955-58, associate professor, 1958-63, Ernest I. White Professor of History, 1963-69; Yale University, New Haven, CT, professor of history, 1969-72, Farnham Professor of History, 1972-78, Sterling Professor of History, 1978-2001, currently emeritus professor of history and director of Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. Fulbright lecturer in India, 1967, and at universities in Guyana and the West Indies, 1974. Lecturer at colleges and universities in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, 1969—. Commissioner, Orange, CT, Public Library Commission, 1974-75; associate director, National Humanities Institute, Yale University, 1975. Military service: U.S. Army, 1945-46.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association (member of Pulitzer Prize and Beveridge Prize committees), Organization of American Historians (president, 1988-89, member of executive board, 1987-92), Society for American Historians, American Antiquarian Society, Institute of Early American History and Culture (member of council), American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Academy, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Guggenheim fellow, 1958-59; Anisfield-Wolf Award, 1967; Pulitzer Prize, 1967, for The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture; National Mass Media Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1967; Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellow, 1972-73; Albert J. Beveridge Award, American Historical Association, 1975; National Book Award for history, and Bancroft Prize, both 1976, both for The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823; Henry E. Huntington Library fellow, 1976; Litt.D., Dartmouth College, 1977; National Endowment for the Humanities, research grants, 1979-80 and 1980-81, and fellowship for independent study and research, 1983-84; Fulbright traveling fellow, 1980-81; L.H.D., University of New Haven, 1986; corresponding fellow, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1989; Presidential Medal for Outstanding Leadership and Achievement, Dartmouth College, 1991; corresponding fellow, British Academy, 1992; Litt.D. from Columbia University, 1999; Bruce Catton Prize for Lifetime Achievement, Society of American Historians, 2004; the annual "David Brion Davis Lecture Series on the History of Slavery, Race, and Their Legacies" was established by Yale University, 2005; American Historical Association Award for scholarly distinction, 2007; Connecticut Book Award for nonfiction, Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society, both for Inhuman Bondage.

WRITINGS:

Homicide in American Fiction, 1798-1860: A Study in Social Values, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1957.

The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1967, reprinted, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Was Thomas Jefferson an Authentic Enemy of Slavery?, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1970.

The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1975, reprinted, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

(With others) The Great Republic: A History of the American People, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1977, revised edition, 1985.

The Emancipation Moment, Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA), 1983.

Slavery and Human Progress, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1984.

Slavery in the Colonial Chesapeake (pamphlet), Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA), 1986.

From Homicide to Slavery: Studies in American Culture, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Revolutions: Reflections on American Equality and Foreign Liberations, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1990.

(Coauthor) The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Interpretation, edited by Thomas Bender, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1992.

In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2001.

Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of pamphlet, The Emancipation Moment, 1984. Contributor to books, including The Stature of Theodore Dreiser, edited by Alfred Kazin and Charles Shapiro, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1955; Twelve Original Essays on Great American Novels, edited by Charles Shapiro, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1958; Perspectives and Irony in American Slavery, edited by Harry Owens, University of Mississippi Press (University, MS), 1976; Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution, edited by Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville, VA), 1983; and British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery, edited by Barbara Solow and Stanley L. Engerman, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1987. Contributor to professional journals and other periodicals, including New York Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement, New York Review of Books, Washington Post Book World, New Republic, and Yale Review.

EDITOR

Antebellum Reform, Harper (New York, NY), 1967.

The Slave Power Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1969.

(Editor) The Fear of Conspiracy: Images of Un-American Subversion from the Revolution to the Present, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1971.

Antebellum American Culture: An Interpretive Anthology, Heath (Lexington, MA), 1979, reprinted, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 1997.

(With Steven Mintz) The Boisterous Sea of Liberty: A Documentary History of America from Discovery through the Civil War, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS:

"David Brion Davis ranks high among the elite historians of New World slavery," remarked M.I. Finley in the New York Times Book Review. Davis's series, "The Problem of Slavery," has won numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. His books on slavery have been praised for their scholarship, lucidity, and especially for their new insights into a much-analyzed institution. "Slavery has been from the beginning a strange paradox," Davis told New York Times contributor Nancy Polk. "The New World was seen as a place of opportunity and new beginnings translated into the vision of the Declaration of Independence, but was combined with a kind of coerced labor that was dying out in Europe. And the first parts of Europe where slavery died out were Northwestern Europe—England, Holland, France, Scandinavia—the very nations that were major transporters of slaves."

In a New York Times Book Review article, J.H. Plumb called the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture "one of the most scholarly and penetrating studies of slavery," and stated that Davis displays "his mastery not only of a vast source of material, but also of the highly complex, frequently contradictory factors that influenced opinion on slavery." In this book, according to George Fredrickson in the New York Review of Books, Davis is concerned "mainly with the changes that had to occur in Western views of the nature of man and his relationship to society and authority before antislavery ideas could emerge." For example, he discusses "the role of original sin as a justification for slavery and how the modification and dilution of this traditional Christian doctrine in the eighteenth century had raised troublesome questions about black servitude."

In The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, Davis continues this analysis with a study of "how ideas antithetical to slavery could win acceptance and become the basis of practical policies that served the broader needs of dominant groups," Fredrickson wrote. To do this, Davis compares the U.S. antislavery movement with that occurring in Great Britain and other countries during the same period. Fredrickson maintained that it is clear from Davis's account "that the British antislavery movement had much greater success in this period than the American, even though both countries legislated against the international slave trade in the same year (1807)." To account for this dichotomy, "Davis undertakes a detailed analysis of the relationship of antislavery to dominant ideologies in both the United States and Great Britain." The result, according to Plumb, is "a rich and powerful book [that] will, I am sure, stand the test of time—scholarly, brilliant in analysis, beautifully written."

Slavery and Human Progress approaches the issue of slavery from a perspective different from that of the author's previous work. "The most striking characteristic of this richly learned book is Davis's sensitivity to ambiguities and ambivalences," commented William McNeill in the Washington Post Book World. The work explores one particular issue: the similarity in rhetoric and reasoning of both the pro- and anti-slavery forces. "The scope of the study is awe-inspiring," said Los Angeles Times Book Review contributor Larry May, covering "slavery in the Western world from biblical times to the present." Finley found this scope somewhat limiting: "From this reading [Davis] has distilled a lively but superficial account of the rhetoric…. The account is superficial because genuine explanation is persistently avoided and often even the importance or typicality of the people he cites is not discussed." J. Morgan Kousser, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, echoed this assessment, commenting that the book lacks "a straight-forward discussion of the ideas of progress and slavery." Nevertheless, the critic concluded that "as perceptive as he is learned and diligent, [Davis] offers illuminating comments on a whole range of topics."

In 1998 Davis and coeditor Steven Mintz produced a volume in association with the Gilder Lehrman Collection (GLC) of American historical documents. The resulting work, The Boisterous Sea of Liberty: A Documentary History of America from Discovery through the Civil War, contains the thoughts of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, William Penn, John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, and other shapers of U.S. history. Coincidentally, felt Nation contributor Louis Masur, the firsthand accounts from the GLC constituted the weak point of the book; "while it purports to be [a documentary history]," said Masur, "this anthology of 366 documents might better be subtitled Letters from Famous Men." The critic pointed out that in theory "there is nothing wrong … with letters and speeches written by members of a political elite." But in The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, such an amassing of documents is tantamount to a baseball-card collection "[consisting] entirely of Mickey Mantles." Booklist reviewer Jay Freeman was more welcoming to the work, however, calling The Boisterous Sea of Liberty a book that can "stand alone as engrossing reading material" as well as provide insight for the history scholar.

Continuing his study of slavery, Davis published In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery, a volume that critiques the writings of others on the subject. This work gained some mixed notice; while Steven Schroeder in Booklist noted the "uneven" quality of the essays, he still recommended the book as "a worthy guide for walking through the labyrinth with open eyes." The work is divided into sections that cover, among other topics, the Jewish-black alliance in twentieth-century America. Jews, with their history of oppression, "were among the first to recognize a kinship between their struggles and [those of] blacks in America," noted Books and Culture contributor Richard Lischer. The author, who announced his conversion to Judaism in this book, "will not resort to comparative victimization," added Lischer. "He will not attempt to quantify the suffering of Jews and African Americans. What he will say, however, is that absolutely nothing can equal the historical and cultural scale on which black people the world over have been subjected to the vilest and most abject forms of domination."

In an assessment for the New York Review of Books, William McNeill declared Davis "exceedingly learned and sophisticated in his review of a wide variety of books…. His own analysis of how religious ideas intertwined with self-interest and other sensibilities to allow Abolitionists to prevail seems masterly to me." To Lischer, the strength of the book lies in "not merely the accuracy of its data but its witness to the terrible continuity between historic and contemporary practices of slavery."

Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery collects a number of essays that are based on a series of lectures Davis delivered at Harvard University. In the work, Davis examines conventional beliefs about origins of slavery, explores federal and intellectual challenges to slavery, and considers the influence of abolitionists in the United States. Writing in the African American Review, Lewis Fried called the volume "a remarkably illuminating study of the ecology of slavery: its boundaries of time and space reviewed so that what is understood is slavery in its terrains, economies, and confluences. These topics form the armature of much American history and social thinking making Davis's book valuable for its reach and authority." Journal of Southern History critic Michael J. Guasco stated that "by marking his retelling of the abolition of slavery with new signposts, by casting new actors in leading roles, and by proposing the existence of a much more elaborate historical context, Davis once again prompts his readers to think anew about not only the history of slavery but also the history of the United States." According to History: Review of New Books contributor Junius P. Rodriguez, "this groundbreaking study deserves scholarly merit for its lucid prose, thought-provoking thesis, and bold approach to ‘how’ historians evaluate the subject of slavery."

In Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World, Davis explores the foundations of slavery and the origins of anti-black racism in the United States, contends that the Atlantic slave trade was central to American foreign policy and integral to America's economic success, and traces the evolution of the abolitionist movement. According to New York Times Book Review contributor Ira Berlin, "The genius of Inhuman Bondage is in Davis's ability to identify the big questions: Why slavery? Why did slavery become identified with Africans and their descendants? Why was slavery so easily accepted before 1776 and so readily challenged thereafter? Why did racism outlast slavery? On each of these matters, and dozens more, Davis expertly summarizes the debates, bringing clarity to the contending arguments."

Other critics praised Davis's global and historical perspective. According to Sharon A. Roger Hepburn, writing in the Historian, the author "adeptly weaves the development, character, and eventual abolition of slavery into the core of western settlement." In the New York Sun, John Stauffer called the work "a stunning achievement, breathtaking in scale and scope and written in a magisterial hand. While its central focus is the rise and fall of slavery in America, one of its main themes is that one can only understand American slavery by placing it in the much larger contexts of Western culture and the rise and fall of slavery in the New World."

Davis once told CA: "I hope that my writings on slavery and abolitionism will continue to help people—especially nonacademics—understand the roots and foundations of the great racial dilemma that America and other countries still face."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

O'Neill, William L., and Kenneth T. Jackson, editors, The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives Thematic Series: The 1960s, Scribner (New York, NY), 2003.

PERIODICALS

African American Review, fall, 2004, Lewis Fried, review of Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, p. 530.

American Renaissance, December, 2006, Thomas Jackson, review of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World.

Booklist, September 1, 1998, Jay Freeman, review of The Boisterous Sea of Liberty: A Documentary History of America from Discovery through the Civil War, p. 60; November 1, 2001, Steven Schroeder, review of In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery, p. 448; March 15, 2006, Vernon Ford, review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 8.

Books and Culture, July-August, 2002, Richard Lischer, "People as Property," review of In the Image of God, p. 28.

Choice, July-August, 2002, R.T. Brown, review of In the Image of God, p. 1998.

Contemporary Review, spring, 2007, review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 131.

Historian, spring, 2008, Sharon A. Roger Hepburn, review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 103.

History in Focus, spring, 2007, Douglas R. Egerton, review of Inhuman Bondage.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 2004, Junius P. Rodriguez, review of Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, p. 56.

Journal of African History, March, 2007, Ralph A. Austen, "Broad Perspectives on Slavery and the Slave Trade," review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 149.

Journal of American History, June, 2000, Gary Nash, review of The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, p. 182.

Journal of Southern History, May, 2005, Michael J. Guasco, review of Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, p. 425.

Library Journal, September 15, 1998, Robert Curtis, review of The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, p. 93; March 15, 2006, Thomas J. Davis, review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 82.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 25, 1984, Larry May, review of Slavery and Human Progress.

Nation, April 26, 1975, review of The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, p. 506; February 15, 1999, Louis Masur, review of The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, p. 27.

New York Law Journal, June 7, 2006, Andrew Muscato, review of Inhuman Bondage.

New York Review of Books, January 17, 1985, J.H. Plumb, review of Slavery and Human Progress, p. 26; October 16, 1975, George Fredrickson, review of The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, p. 38; May 23, 2002, William McNeill, "The Big R," review of In the Image of God, p. 56; March 25, 2004, George M. Fredrickson, "America's Original Sin," review of Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, p. 34; May 25, 2006, George M. Fredrickson, "They'll Take Their Stand," review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 34.

New York Sun, August 30, 2006, John Stauffer, review of Inhuman Bondage.

New York Times, December 20, 1998, Nancy Polk, "Getting a Better Grasp of American History," interview with David Brion Davis.

New York Times Book Review, February 9, 1975, J.H. Plumb, review of The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823, p. 1; February 3, 1985, M.I. Finley, "Suddenly, Owning People Was Wrong," review of Slavery and Human Progress, p. 26; October 5, 1986, Louis D. Rubin, Jr., review of From Homicide to Slavery: Studies in American Culture, p. 27; May 14, 2006, Ira Berlin, "Slaves in the Family," review of Inhuman Bondage, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, September 14, 1998, review of The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, p. 63.

Times (London, England), June 21, 2006, Howard Temperley, "The Abolition of Slavery," review of Inhuman Bondage.

Times Literary Supplement, February 1, 1985, J. Morgan Kousser, review of Slavery and Human Progress.

Washington Post Book World, October 21, 1984, William O'Neill, review of Slavery and Human Progress.