Alan Taylor, professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (Knopf, 1995), will give the Victor S. Johnson III '71 Lecture at Hamilton College on Wednesday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of History and President's Office at Hamilton.
Taylor's most recent book is The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution (Knopf, 2006), which focuses on New York and Canada during the era of the American Revolution. For this book, Taylor made use of the Hamilton College archives, particularly the Samuel Kirkland papers. Kirkland, missionary to the Oneidas, was the founder of Hamilton College.
This talk will explore the four stages of Kirkland's life among the Oneidas: his pre-revolutionary mission, his wartime service as a chaplain, his post-war alienation from the Oneidas, and his ultimate reconciliation. By examining Kirkland, the lecture will also consider the challenges of writing a biography set in the generation of the American Revolution.
Taylor received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University. His Pulitzer Prize-winning book in history, William Coopers Town, is a story of frontier village in the American Republic. According to the Pulitzer Prize Web site, "Taylor explores the lives of Judge William Cooper and his son, novelist James Fenimore Cooper. As frontier speculator, landlord, and politician, the father played a leading role in the conquest, resettlement, and environmental transformation of the early nation. Drawing upon his childhood memories of the New York frontier, the son created the historical fictions that made him the most popular, influential, and controversial American novelist of the early nineteenth century." The book also received Columbia University's Bancroft Prize and the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association.
The lecture will be followed by a book signing.
