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James Kirby Martin

{{Short description|American historian (1943–2024)}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{Sources|date=February 2025}}

{{Primary sources|date=August 2024}}

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{{Infobox person

| name = James Kirby Martin

| image = jameskirbymartin2012.jpg

| caption =

| occupation = Historian
Professor at the University of Houston

| yearsactive = 1969–2024

| birth_date = {{birth date|1943|05|26}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|12|31|1943|05|26}}

| birth_place =

| spouse = Karen Martin

| parents =

| website = https://jameskirbymartin.com/

| children = 3

| education = * Hiram College (BA)

}}

James Kirby Martin (May 26, 1943 – December 31, 2024) was an American historian who was a Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of History at the University of Houston, Houston, Texas. He studied American military and social history, specifically the American Revolution, and alcohol-related issues in the United States. In addition to his scholarly work and publications, Martin has advised and appeared on television programs aired on the History Channel and also advised New York-based Talon Films on historical issues. He has also become involved in movie production.{{cite web|url=http://www.uh.edu/class/history/faculty-and-staff/martin_j/index.php|title=James Kirby Martin|publisher=vi.uh.edu|access-date=May 16, 2011}}

Education, background, and achievements

Martin received his B.A. from Hiram College (summa cum laude) and then earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He began his teaching career at Rutgers University, where he earned the rank of Professor of History and also served for a period as Vice President for Academic Affairs. In 1980, Martin moved to the University of Houston, having accepted assignment as the Department Chair of History.

Martin helped to found the Papers of Thomas Edison project at Rutgers University and for a few years served on its board of advisers. He was also on the advisory board of the Papers of William Livingston project. Martin has served as general editor for a book series, the American Social Experience (New York University Press), and as a consulting editor for a book series entitled Conversations with the Past (Brandywine Press). Martin was serving on the advisory board of editors for the Critical Historical Encounters book series sponsored by Oxford University Press.{{cite web|url=http://www.garamondagency.com/index.php?id=288|title=James Kirby Martin|publisher=garamondagency.com|access-date=May 16, 2011}}

Martin consulted some of the nation's most eminent law firms with regard to the history of various consumer products, including alcohol and tobacco, and collaborated and appeared on programs aired by the History Channel. Talon Films of New York also regularly consulted Martin on historical matters. Martin worked on two movie screenplays: one focusing on Benedict Arnold’s treason and the other on Oneida warrior Han Yerry Doxtader and Mohawk warrior Joseph Brant.

Martin died on December 31, 2024, at the age of 81.{{cite web |title=James Kirby Martin |url=https://www.dettlingfuneral.com/obituaries/James-Martin-199/#!/TributeWall |website=Dettling Funeral Home |access-date=2 February 2025}}

Teaching inventory

Martin's teaching interests include early American history through the Revolution, American military history through the Civil War, and the history of medicine and health in the United States, particularly that of drinking, smoking, and drug usage. He taught many undergraduate courses at the University of Houston, including a survey history of the United States; topical courses in colonial and Revolutionary American history; and capstone courses on such subjects as disease and addiction in the American experience. At the graduate level, Martin has offered a variety of courses, including early American historiography as well as introductory and advanced courses on research and writing in United States history.

Research interests

Martin was the award-winning author and editor of twelve books and numerous scholarly articles. His later research interests focused on military, social, and political aspects of early American history, especially the Revolutionary era and beyond.

Martin completed a major revision of his co-authored work, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789 (2006), and he has co-authored (with Joseph Glatthaar) Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution (2006). In 2008, a new third edition of Ordinary Courage: The Revolutionary War Adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin, also appeared.

Martin's later writing projects included The Remarkable Revolution: How the United States Avoided Becoming a Military Dictatorship, 1775-1787 (tentative title, with Oxford University Press), as well as a volume on Han Yerry Doxtader and the Iroquois Indians titled American Warrior: Han Yerry Doxtader, the Battle of Oriskany, and the Decline and Fall of the Six Nations of Iroquois Indians. Two other projects under way include an investigation of Benedict Arnold's treason (with Oxford University Press), and a study of the history of smoking in America (a companion volume related to his earlier co-authored book on drinking in America).

Works

  • {{cite book

|author-link=James Kirby Martin |last=Martin |first=James Kirby

|title=Men in rebellion : higher governmental leaders and the coming of the American Revolution

|location=New York |publisher=Free Press |year=1976 |isbn=0029201209

|lccn=75046596}}

  • {{cite book |edition=2d

|others=Martin, James Kirby, comp.

|title=Interpreting colonial America; selected readings

|url=https://archive.org/details/interpretingcolo00mart

|url-access=registration

|location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1978

|isbn=978-0-06-044209-5

|lccn=77007111}}

  • {{cite book

|editor1-link=James Kirby Martin

|editor1-first=James Kirby

|editor1-last=Martin

|title=The Human dimensions of nation making : essays on colonial and revolutionary America

|location=Madison

|publisher=State Historical Society of Wisconsin

|year=1976

|isbn=0870201581

|lccn=75030821

|url-access=registration

|url=https://archive.org/details/humandimensionso0000unse

}}

  • {{cite book

|title=The American Revolution : whose revolution?

|editor1-link=James Kirby Martin |editor1-first=James Kirby |editor1-last=Martin |editor2-first=Karen R. |editor2-last=Stubaus

|location=Huntington, New York |publisher=R. E. Krieger Pub. Co. |year=1977

|isbn=0882753975

|lccn=76018740}}

  • {{cite book |author-link=James Kirby Martin |first=James Kirby |last=Martin |title=In the course of human events : an interpretive exploration of the American Revolution |location=Arlington Heights, Illinois |publisher=AHM Pub. Corp. |year=1979 |isbn=0882957945 |lccn=79050878 |url=https://archive.org/details/incourseofhumane0000mart }}
  • {{cite book

|title=Citizen soldier : the Revolutionary War journal of Joseph Bloomfield |editor1-first=Mark E. |editor1-last=Lender

|editor2-link=James Kirby Martin |editor2-first=James Kirby |editor2-last=Martin

|location=Newark |publisher=New Jersey Historical Society |year=1982

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TA08AAAAIAAJ

|access-date=2013-01-25

|isbn=0911020055

|lccn=82003618}} (on Bloomfield, Joseph, 1753-1823)

  • {{cite book

|last1=Lender |first1=Mark Edward

|title=Drinking in America : a history

|author-link2=James Kirby Martin |first2=James Kirby |last2=Martin

|edition=The rev. and expanded

|location=New York |publisher=Free Press |year=1987

|isbn=002918570X

|lccn=86032885}}

  • {{cite book |author-link=James Kirby Martin |first=James Kirby |last=Martin |title=A concise history of America and its people

|location=New York, NY |publisher=HarperCollins College |year=1995

|isbn=0673467805 |lccn=94020138|display-authors=etal}}

  • {{cite book |author-link=James Kirby Martin |first=James Kirby |last=Martin |title=Benedict Arnold, revolutionary hero : an American warrior reconsidered |location=New York |publisher=New York University Press |year=1997 |isbn=0814755607 |lccn=97004631 |url=https://archive.org/details/benedictarnoldre0000mart }}
  • {{cite book |author-link=James Kirby Martin |first=James Kirby |last=Martin

|title=American and Its Peoples: A Mosaic in the Making

|author2=Randy W. Roberts |author3=Steven H. Mintz |author3-link=Steven Mintz |author4=Linda O. McMurry |author5=James H. Jones

|location=New York

|publisher=Pearson Longman |isbn=0321162145 |edition=5th |year=2004 |lccn=2003014085}}

  • {{cite book |author-link2=James Kirby Martin |first2=James Kirby |last2=Martin |id= |first1=Joseph T. |last1=Glatthaar |title=Forgotten allies : the Oneida Indians and the American revolution |edition=1st |location=New York |publisher=Hill and Wang |year=2006 |isbn=0809046016 |lccn=2006002369 |url=https://archive.org/details/forgottenallieso00jose }}
  • {{cite book |author-link1=James Kirby Martin |first1=James Kirby |last1=Martin

|first2=Mark Edward |last2=Lender

|title=A respectable army : the military origins of the Republic, 1763-1789

|edition=2nd

|location=Wheeling, Ill. |publisher=Harlan Davidson, Inc. |year=2006 |isbn=9780882952390 |lccn=2005006563}}

  • {{cite book

|title=Ordinary courage : the Revolutionary War adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin

|editor1-link=James Kirby Martin |editor1-first=James Kirby |editor1-last=Martin

|edition=3rd

|location=Malden, MA |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2008

|isbn=9781405177061

|lccn=2007036379}}, on Martin, Joseph Plumb, 1760-1850.

  • {{cite book

|title=Ordinary courage : the Revolutionary War adventures of Joseph Plumb Martin

|editor1-link=James Kirby Martin |editor1-first=James Kirby |editor1-last=Martin

|others=with an essay "The Revolutionary War Soldier on Film" by Karen Guenther

|edition=Fourth

|location=Hoboken |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |year=2012

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VnEgemieOgC&q=Ordinary+courage+:+the+Revolutionary+War+adventures+of+Joseph+Plumb+Martin

|access-date=2013-01-26

|isbn=9781444351354

|lccn=2011051679}}, on Martin, Joseph Plumb, 1760-1850.

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • Faculty listing at University of Houston: [http://www.uh.edu/class/history/faculty-and-staff/martin_j/index.php James Kirby Martin | Department of History]
  • {{Facebook|jameskirbymartin}}
  • {{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/James-Kirby-Martin/e/B001IOHA3W |title=Amazon.com: James Kirby Martin: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle |access-date=2013-01-25 |publisher=Amazon.com}}
  • {{C-SPAN|1025734}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, James Kirby}}

Category:1943 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:21st-century American historians

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:Historians of the United States

Category:University of Houston faculty

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni

Category:Writers from Texas

Category:Writers from Wisconsin

Category:American male non-fiction writers