David Hackett Fischer
{{Short description|American historian (born 1935)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = David Hackett Fischer
| image =
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|12|2}}
| birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
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| occupation = Professor
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| genre = History
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| notableworks = {{*}}Washington's Crossing
{{*}}Champlain's Dream
{{*}}Paul Revere's Ride
{{*}}Albion's Seed
{{*}}Liberty and Freedom
{{*}}The Great Wave
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| education = Princeton University (AB)
Johns Hopkins University (PhD)
}}
David Hackett Fischer (born December 2, 1935) is University Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have covered topics ranging from large macroeconomic and cultural trends (Albion's Seed, The Great Wave) to narrative histories of significant events (Paul Revere's Ride, Washington's Crossing) to explorations of historiography (Historians' Fallacies, in which he coined the term "historian's fallacy").
Education
Fischer grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1958 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1962.{{cite web|url=http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/explore/pritzker-literature-award/david-hackett-fischer-2015-pritzker-literature-award-winner/|title=David Hackett Fischer|work=pritzkermilitary.org}}
Career
Fischer has been on the faculty of Brandeis University for 50 years, where he is known for being interested in his students and history.{{cite web|url=http://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2012/fall-winter/featured-stories/fischer.html|title=Historian David Hackett Fischer Marks 50 Years at Brandeis - Brandeis Magazine|work=Brandeis Magazine}}
He is best known for two major works: Albion's Seed (1989), and Washington's Crossing (2004). In Albion's Seed, he argues that core aspects of American culture stem from four British folkways and regional cultures and that their interaction and conflict have been decisive factors in U.S. political and historical development. In Washington's Crossing, Fischer provides a narrative of George Washington's leadership of the Continental Army in the winter of 1776–1777 during the American Revolutionary War.
Fischer was admitted as an honorary member of The Society of the Cincinnati in 2006. He is a member of the board of the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Awards
Washington's Crossing (2004) won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History{{cite web|url=https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/may-2005/david-hackett-fischer-receives-pulitzer-prize|title=David Hackett Fischer Receives Pulitzer Prize|work=historians.org}} and was a 2004 finalist for the National Book Award in the Nonfiction category.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2004_dhfischer.htm|title=David Hackett Fischer, 2004 National Book Award Finalist: Nonfiction, National Book Foundation|work=nationalbook.org}}
He received the 2006 Irving Kristol Award from the American Enterprise Institute.{{cite web|url=http://www.aei.org/publication/david-hackett-fischer-to-receive-2006-irving-kristol-award/|title=David Hackett Fischer to Receive 2006 Irving Kristol Award|work=AEI}}
In 2008, he published Champlain's Dream, an exploration of Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer and founder of Quebec City. The book was a runner-up in the 2009 Cundill Prize.{{cite web|url=http://www.cundillprize.com/prize2009/short-list/|title=2009 Short List - Cundill Prize in History|work=cundillprize.com|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629035627/http://www.cundillprize.com/prize2009/short-list/|archivedate=2015-06-29}}
In 2015, Fischer was named the recipient of the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2015/06/30/brandeis-professor-fischer-wins-pritzker-award/FqG3kYHUjGhzL3fsgV6UHP/story.html|title=Brandeis professor Fischer wins $100,000 Pritzker Award|work=BostonGlobe.com}}
In addition to these literary awards, he has been recognized for his commitment to teaching with the 1990 Carnegie Prize as Massachusetts Professor of the Year and the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Selected works
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?58074-1/paul-reveres-ride Booknotes interview with Fischer on Paul Revere's Ride, July 17, 1994], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?282039-1/champlains-dream Presentation by Fischer on Champlain's Dream at the New York Historical Society, October 23, 2008], C-SPAN| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?180854-1/washingtons-crossing Presentation by Fischer on Washington's Crossing], February 26, 2004, C-SPAN}}
- Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (1970) {{ISBN|0-06-131545-1}}
- The Revolution of American Conservatism: The Federalist Party in the Era of Jeffersonian Democracy (1976) {{ISBN|0-226-25135-7}}
- Growing Old in America (1977) Series: Chester Bland—Dwight E. Lee Lectures in History.
- Concord: The Social History of a New England Town 1750–1850 (1984) (Editor)
- Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989) {{ISBN|0-19-503794-4}}. Albion's Seed was intended to be the first book in a planned five-volume series, America: A Cultural History. The second volume was to have been American Plantations.
- Paul Revere's Ride (1994), Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-508847-6}}
- The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History (1996) {{ISBN|0-19-505377-X}}
- Bound Away: Virginia and the Westward Movement (2000), with James C. Kelly, University of Virginia Press, {{ISBN|0-81-391773-5}}
- Washington's Crossing (2004) {{ISBN|0-19-517034-2}}
- Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas (2005) {{ISBN|0-19-516253-6}}
- Champlain's Dream: The European Founding of North America (2008) {{ISBN|9781416593324}}
- Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States (2012) {{ISBN|9780199832705}}
- African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals (2022) {{ISBN|9781982145095}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://www.adweek.com/galleycat/david-hackett-fischer-wins-award-for-lifetime-achievement-in-military-writing/106355 Image and article about David Fischer and his awards.]
- [https://history.nasa.gov/thinking/hist-4.html A review of David Hackett Fischer's Historians' Fallacies : Toward a Logic of Historical Thought]
- [http://www.brandeis.edu/facguide/faculty?emplid=e09ad45a0c004f099ecc000d57381495164bdc45 Brandeis University History Department Faculty Page]
- [http://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2012/fall-winter/featured-stories/fischer.html David Hackett Fischer], biographical sketch at Brandeis Magazine
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/books/review/Boot-t.html They Didn't Name That Lake for Nothing, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, Oct. 31, 2008]
- {{C-SPAN|35968}}
- [http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Hack In Depth interview with Fischer November 7, 2004]
{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 2001–2025}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, David Hackett}}
Category:Historians of the United States
Category:Pulitzer Prize for History winners
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni
Category:Brandeis University faculty
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century American historians
Category:Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professors of American History