Richter, Daniel K(arl) 1954-

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RICHTER, Daniel K(arl) 1954-

PERSONAL: Born October 15, 1954, in Erie, PA; son of Robert C. M. (a pastor) and Violet (a teacher; maiden name, Fennell) Richter; married Sharon L. Mead (a translator and writer), May 10, 1980; children: Thomas, Mary. Education: Thomas More College, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1976; Columbia University, M.A., 1977, M.Phil., 1979, Ph.D., 1984. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Lutheran. Hobbies and other interests: Woodworking, choral music.

ADDRESSES: Office—McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 3619 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6213. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Seton Hall University, East Orange, NJ, adjunct instructor in history, 1979; Columbia University, New York, NY, instructor in history, summer, 1981, visiting professor of history, 2000; Pace University, New York, NY, adjunct instructor in social sciences, 1981-82; Millersville State College, Millersville, PA, instructor in history, 1982-83; College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, assistant professor of history, 1983-85; Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, assistant professor, 1985-91, associate professor of history and member of American studies department, beginning 1991—; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, professor of history and Richard S. Dunn Director of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. University of East Anglia, Fulbright exchange lecturer, 1992-93.

MEMBER: American Antiquarian Society, American Historical Association, American Society for Ethnohistory, American Studies Association, Organization of American Historians, Associates of the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Society of American Historians, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS: Harold L. Peterson Award for best article in American military history, Eastern National Parks and Monument Association, and prize for best article, Daughters of Colonial Wars, both 1983, for "War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience"; National Endowment for the Humanities, fellowship for Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1983-85, grant, 1991; Columbian Quincentennial fellow, Newberry Library, 1988 and 1990; Milton Klein Prize, Pennsylvania Historical Association, 1991, for the article "A Framework for Pennsylvania Indian History"; fellow, Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, 1991; Ray Allen Billington Prize and Frederick Jackson Turner Award, both from Organization of American Historians, 1993, for The Ordeal of the Longhouse; The Ordeal of the Longhouse named an "outstanding academic book" by Choice magazine, 1994; finalist for Pulitzer Prize in history category, 2002, for Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America; Louis Gottschalk Prize in Eighteenth-Century History, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2001, for Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with James H. Merrell, and contributor) Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600-1800, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 1987, paperback edition, Pennsylvania State Press (University Park), 2003.

The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1992.

Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2001.

Contributor to books, including The American Indian, Past and Present, 3rd edition, edited by Roger F. Nichols, Knopf (New York, NY), 1986; A Guide tothe History of Pennsylvania, edited by Francis J. Bremer and Dennis Downey, Greenwood Press, 1993; The Oxford History of the British Empire, edited by W. M. Roger Louis, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1998; and Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth, edited by Randall Miller and William Pencak, Penn State University Press (University Park, PA), 2002. Contributor of articles and reviews to history journals. Associate editor, Ethnohistory, 1986-92; member of editorial board, Pennsylvania History, 1986-90.

Editor of "Early American Studies" series, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002—.

SIDELIGHTS: Daniel K. Richter's books on Native American history have earned him many awards. His works focus on the Eastern woodland people, who lived for years with the European immigrants in a cooperative state that changed both white and Native American cultures. In Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, Richter gives a new perspective on American history, told from a Native American viewpoint. He disputes the notion that Native Americans were nothing more than victims from the time the Europeans began to settle the North American continent. Europeans considered the various tribes as established nations and accordingly treated them with respect, until the Revolutionary War gave birth to the idea of the United States as a sovereign nation. With the war against England ended, the various tribes, grouped together as "Indians," became a common enemy. Richter's book offers a nuanced alternative to the idea that most Native Americans either fought European culture fiercely or embraced it wholeheartedly. He illuminates his thesis with the stories of three well-known Native Americans: Pocahontas, who eventually married an Englishman and sailed to England; Kateri Tekakwitha, a Christianized Iroquois who was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint; and Metacom, an Algonquin warrior who was popularly known as King Philip. John Burch, reviewing Facing East from Indian Country in Library Journal, called it a "masterly work" offering "a valuable perspective that is often overlooked." It is a "bold and thoroughly astonishing history," observed a Publishers Weekly reviewer, adding, "Gracefully written and argued, Richter's compelling research and provocative claims make this an important addition to the literature."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Canadian Historical Review, September, 1994, review of The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization, p. 444.

History Today, February, 1995, review of The Ordeal of the Longhouse, p. 60.

Journal of American History, March, 1995, review of The Ordeal of the Longhouse, p. 1671.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, autumn, 1994,p. 326.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2001, review of Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, p. 1344.

Library Journal, October 15, 2001, John Burch, review of Facing East from Indian Country, p. 93.

Pacific Historical Review, November, 1994, review of The Ordeal of the Longhouse, p. 588.

Publishers Weekly, October 22, 2001, review of Facing East from Indian Country, p. 60.

William and Mary Quarterly, October, 1994, review of The Ordeal of the Longhouse, p. 787.