Russell Shorto

{{Short description|American author, historian, and journalist}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}

{{infobox writer

|name=Russell Shorto

|image=Russell Shorto.jpg

|caption=Shorto in 2010

|birth_name=Russell Anthony Shorto

|birth_date={{birth date and age|1959|2|8}}

|birth_place=Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S.

|occupation={{flatlist|

• Author
• historian
• journalist

}}

|nationality=American

|alma_mater=George Washington University

|spouse=

|website={{url|https://www.russellshorto.com}}

}}

Russell Anthony Shorto (born February 8, 1959) is an American author, historian, and journalist. He is is best known for his book on the Dutch origins of New York City, The Island at the Center of the World.Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. First Edition. New York City: Vintage Books (a Division of Random House), 2004; {{ISBN|1-4000-7867-9}}Joyce Goodfriend, "Review" New York History Vol. 86, No. 3 (Summer 2005), pp. 298–301 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23185797 online]Paul Otto, "Review" Journal of American History (June 2005), Vol. 92 Issue 1, pp. 183–84 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3660539 online]. Shorto's research for the book relied greatly on the work of the New Netherland Project, now known as the New Netherland Research Center,{{cite web|url=http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/about-nni/about-the-nnrc/ |title=New Netherland Research Center |website=Newnetherlandinstitute.org |access-date=June 6, 2017}} as well as the New Netherland Institute.{{cite web|url=http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/ |title=Home |publisher=New Netherland Institute |access-date=June 6, 2017}} Shorto has been the New Netherland Institute's Senior Scholar since 2013.

In November 2017, he published Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom, which tells the story of the American Revolution through the eyes of six Americans from vastly different walks of life. His 2021 memoir Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob covers Shorto's own family history and his ancestors involvement in the American Mafia in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.{{cite news |last1=Stapinski |first1=Helene |title=Russell Shorto's Grandpa Was a 'Smalltime' Mobster |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/books/review/smalltime-russell-shorto.html |access-date=April 15, 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=February 2, 2021}} His most recent work published in 2025, Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America, continues to explore New York history into the British colonial period starting in 1664.

In 2022, Shorto founded the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society,{{Cite web |title=The New Amsterdam Project {{!}} The New York Historical |url=https://www.nyhistory.org/library/the-new-amsterdam-project |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=www.nyhistory.org |language=en}} with a mission to promote awareness of New York's Dutch origins.