Taylor, Alan 1955–

PERSONAL: Born 1955, in Portland, ME. Education: Attended Colby College; Brandeis University, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES: Office—3208 Social Sciences and Humanities, University of California—Davis, Davis, CA 95616. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Historian, educator, and writer. University of California, Davis, professor of history.

AWARDS, HONORS: Bancroft Prize, Albert J. Beveridge Award, and Pulitzer Prize in American history, all 1996, all for William Cooper's Town; Arthur H. Cole Prize, 1999–2000.

WRITINGS:

(With Roger N. Parks and David P. Hall) New England: A Bibliography of Its History, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1989.

Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760–1820, University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1990.

William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

American Colonies, Viking Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Lewis and Clark: Journey to another America, Missouri Historical Society Press (St. Louis, MO), 2003.

Writing Early American History, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), 2005.

The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, Knopf (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Alan Taylor is a historian whose primary areas of interest include early American and colonial history, the history of the American West, and the history of Canada. His book Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760–1820 "will be a landmark in the 'new' history of the early American frontier," wrote Richard D. Brown in the New England Quarterly. Taylor tells the story of the settlement of Maine after the American Revolution, and the conflicts between settlers who cleared the land and politically powerful proprietors who tried to "sell" them—at hugely inflated prices—the land they had already settled. Taylor examines the political, cultural, and economic issues that led to this conflict, as well as the events of the conflict itself. Brown wrote: "The power of Taylor's richly detailed, eloquent analysis lies in his convincing explanation of how political and social processes combined with ideas and cultural values to produce violent conflict first and then a revolutionary settlement in Maine"—a settlement where, in contrast to American ideals, competition and inequality became fundamental parts of the fabric of society. In the Journal of Economic History, Peter C. Mancall wrote that the book contains "a well-constructed narrative spiced with the stories of real people" that explains how "the creation of a 'liberal social order' proved a difficult task in Maine and no doubt throughout much of America as well."

William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, which won 1996 Bancroft, Beveridge, and Pulitzer prizes, provides both a biography of William Cooper, a frontier land developer and political leader of the 1780s and 1790s, and a study of Cooperstown, New York, which Cooper founded in 1786. Taylor also analyzes the novel The Pioneers, set during the founding of Cooperstown and written in 1822 by Cooper's son, James Fenimore Cooper.

"This extraordinary saga charts the partisan battles for supremacy in the new America republic," along with the competition among religious institutions for members and the attempt by "American writers to create a distinctive national literature," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor about William Cooper's Town. "This engaging, prize-winning chronicle … has much to offer," noted Graham Russell Hodges in Agricultural History. In the Times Literary Supplement, Jack P. Greene wrote: "This is a moving and historically important story told with insight, analytic intelligence and profuse detail." Gordon S. Wood commented in the New York Review of Books that Taylor's analysis of the actual history of Cooperstown in comparison to the fictionalized events of The Pioneers is particularly fascinating. Wood wrote that although the book at times has more detail than many readers probably need, Taylor's research is "prodigious." In sum, Wood noted: "It is an extraordinary story that Taylor has told—an American tragedy, involving a man's family and his entire community," further observing that "the book is worthy of all the acclaim and prizes it has received."

American Colonies is the first volume of a five-volume series of books on American history. In the New York Times Book Review, Andrew R.L. Cayton wrote that, in the book, Taylor "expertly weaves together the argu-ments and evidence of dozens of historians and anthropologists, especially those interested in indigenous peoples, environments and the nature of the Atlantic world." In doing so, he places early American history within the context of other world events, particularly in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that American Colonies "offers a balanced understanding of the diverse peoples and forces that converged on this continent early on and influenced the course of American history." "Most interesting," wrote Allen Weakland in Booklist, "is the manner in which the early colonists … were aided by the Native Americans … [and] African slaves." Taylor also "vividly describes the harsh realities of colonial life," observed Robert Flatley in the Library Journal, noting that the book is "well written and documented." Taylor discusses other issues in American Colonies as well, including some Americans still face, such as global trade, cross-cultural encounters, and diversity.

In The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, Taylor examines how the Iroquois Confederacy, composed of the Iroquois Six Nations of New York and Upper Canada, tried to maintain autonomy despite the increasing encroachment onto their lands and way of life by European settlers. One of the tribe's most successful strategies was to link with the British, a maneuver that proved relatively successful until the beginning of the American Revolution. As he tells the story, Taylor focuses on two primary figures: Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, who had the ability to interact easily with the white European settlers, and Samuel Kirkland, a minister and American revolutionary.

John Burch, writing in the Library Journal, called The Divided Ground a "magnificent scholarly monograph [that] is extremely well written." Referring to the book as "a rich, sprawling history," a Publishers Weekly contributor went on to write: "This complex history told by a master of the trade will repay close reading." In a review in Booklist, Gilbert Taylor noted: "This frontier history will engage general readers with its acute portraiture and turbulent themes of acquisition and dispossession." A Kirkus Revews contributor wrote that the author "turns in a grand tale 'of mutual need and mutual suspicion' as Americans, Indians and the colonial powers vied for mastery of the 18th-century frontier."

Writing Early American History is a collection of the author's book reviews previously published in the New Republic. Containing twenty-four reviews in all, the collection not only discusses specific books but also the art of writing about history. Writing Early American History "is a provocative and very well written collection of reviews, which both general readers and professional historians will greatly benefit from reading," wrote Steven E. Siry in History: Review of New Books.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Agricultural History, winter, 1997, Graham Russell Hodges, review of William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, p. 92.

Booklist, September 15, 1995, Patricia Hassler, review of William Cooper's Town, p. 139; October 15, 2001, Allen Weakland, review of American Colonies, p. 380; March 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, p. 59.

California Bookwatch, May, 2006, review of The Divided Ground.

Historian, winter, 1998, review of William Cooper's Town, p. 365.

History: Review of New Books, summer, 2005, Steven E. Siry, review of Writing Early American History, p. 142.

Journal of American History, June, 1991, Jackson Turner Main, review of Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760–1820, p. 303.

Journal of Economic History, September, 1991, Peter C. Mancall, review of Liberty Men and Great Proprietors, p. 753.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2001, review of American Colonies, p. 1278; January 1, 2006, review of The Divided Ground, p. 35.

Library Journal, October 15, 2001, Robert Flatley, review of American Colonies, p. 94; March 1, 2006, John Burch, review of The Divided Ground, p. 105.

New England Quarterly, December, 1991, Richard D. Brown, review of Liberty Men and Great Prorietors, p. 643.

New York Review of Books, August 8, 1996, Gordon S. Wood, review of William Cooper's Town, p. 36.

New York Times Book Review, December 2, 2001, Andrew R.L. Cayton, review of American Colonies, p. 61.

Publishers Weekly, August 28, 1995, review of William Cooper's Town, p. 100; October 29, 2001, review of American Colonies, p. 48; January 2, 2006, review of The Divided Ground, p. 46.

Sacramento Business Journal, December 15, 2000, "Journal of Economic History," p. 40.

Times Literary Supplement, February 28, 1997, Jack P. Greene, review of William Cooper's Town, p. 8.