Joshua D. Rothman
{{short description|American historian}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Joshua D. Rothman
| image =
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| birth_name = Joshua Daniel Rothma
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| education = BA, 1994, Cornell University
MA, 1995 and PhD, 2000, University of Virginia
| thesis_title = Notorious in the neighborhood: interracial sex and interracial families in early national and antebellum Virginia
| thesis_url = https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/v692t628j
| thesis_year = 2000
| doctoral_advisor = Edward L. Ayers and Peter S. Onuf
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| workplaces = University of Alabama
}}
Joshua Daniel Rothman ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|ɒ|θ|m|ən}}) is an American historian. He is a professor and chair for the department of history at the University of Alabama.
Early life and education
Rothman earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University{{cite web |last1=Crawford |first1=Franklin |title=Personal History |url=http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/personal-history/ |website=cornellalumnimagazine.com |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=December 2017}} before enrolling at the University of Virginia for his PhD.{{cite web |title=Joshua D. Rothman |url=https://history.ua.edu/people/joshua-d-rothman/ |website=history.ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020}}
Career
Upon earning his PhD, Rothman joined the department of history at the University of Alabama as an assistant professor. In this role, he published his first book on the history of interracial sex in Virginia before the Civil War titled Notorious in the Neighborhood, Sex and Families Across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861.{{cite web |title=UA's W.S. Hoole Library to Host Professor Who Examines the History of Interracial Sex |url=https://www.ua.edu/news/2003/04/uas-w-s-hoole-library-to-host-professor-who-examines-the-history-of-interracial-sex/ |website=ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=April 24, 2003}} The book discusses how the fluidity of sexual interracial relationships occurred during times when society and law clashed. Rothman explores how white supremacy was rampant in Virginia while society simultaneously accepted interracial relationships such as Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.{{cite journal |last1=Gundersen |first1=Joan R. |title=Review of Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787–1861. |journal=Journal of American History |date=June 2004 |volume=91 |issue=1 |page=231 |doi=10.2307/3659657 |jstor=3659657 |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/91/1/231/762575 |accessdate=July 6, 2020|url-access=subscription }} Following the publication of Notorious in the Neighborhood, he received an American Antiquarian Society-National Endowment For the Humanities Fellowship to conduct research for a book on American expansion to the cotton frontiers of the Old Southwest.{{cite web |title=UA Professor Named American Antiquarian Society-National Endowment For the Humanities Fellow |url=http://urweb01-dev.ua.edu/urwebdev/uanews/2005/08/ua-professor-named-american-antiquarian-society-national-endowment-for-the-humanities-fellow/ |website=ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=August 9, 2005}} The book was later published as Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson in 2012 through the University of Georgia Press.{{cite journal |last1=Majewski |first1=John |title=Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson by Joshua D. Rothman (review) |journal=The Journal of the Civil War Era |date=September 2014 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=458–461 |doi=10.1353/cwe.2014.0048 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/551593 |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press|s2cid=161107488 |url-access=subscription }} It went on to receive the Gulf South Historical Association’s Michael V.R. Thomason Book Award for the best book on the history of the Gulf South and Southern Historical Association’s Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award for the best book in southern history.{{cite web |title=Rothman's Book Recognized with Two Awards |url=https://as.ua.edu/2013/11/13/rothmans-book-recognized-with-two-awards/ |website=as.ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=November 13, 2013}}
Following the publication of his book, Rothman continued to serve as director of the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South, where he received an $18,000 grant from the Southern Foodways Alliance to research barbeques in the South. Since barbecue are a major aspect of the Southern lifestyle, he wished to study how barbecue became a cultural phenomenon and how the cuisine developed over time.{{cite web |title=Rothman to Study BBQ |url=https://as.ua.edu/2013/09/16/rothman-to-study-bbq/ |website=as.ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=September 16, 2013}} He also co-directed a research project with colleagues at Cornell University and the University of New Orleans titled Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives from North American Slavery.{{cite web |title=Freedom on the Move |url=https://www.ua.edu/news/2018/12/freedom-on-the-move/ |website=ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=December 14, 2018}} Their project, which received a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, aimed to digitize every advertisement for a runaway slave in North American newspapers.{{cite web |title=Historian Receives Grant for Digital Slavery Project |url=https://as.ua.edu/2017/09/11/historian-receives-grant-for-digital-slavery-project/ |website=as.ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=September 11, 2017}} As a result of his overall academic research, Rothman was appointed Chair of Alabama's department of history in 2016.{{cite web |title=Dr. Joshua Rothman Embraces New Role As Department Chair|url=https://history.ua.edu/dr-joshua-rothman-embraces-new-role-as-department-chair/ |website=history.ua.edu |accessdate=July 6, 2020 |date=September 21, 2016}} In 2019, Rothman accepted an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship to conduct research for his newest book, The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America.{{cite web |title=Joshua D. Rothman F'19 |url=https://www.acls.org/research/fellow.aspx?cid=8DBFCD1B-B83A-E911-80E6-000C296A63B0 |website=acls.org |accessdate=July 6, 2020}}
Bibliography
- Notorious in the Neighborhood, Sex and Families Across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2003, {{ISBN|9780807827680}}.
- Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson, University of Georgia Press, 2012, {{ISBN|9780820346816}}.
- The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America. New York, Basic Books, 2021, {{ISBN|9781541616615}}.
References
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Category:Cornell University alumni
Category:University of Virginia alumni
Category:University of Alabama alumni
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century American historians