Paul Samuel Boyer

Paul Samuel Boyer ( 2. August 1935 in Dayton, Ohio - March 17 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin ) was an American culture and humanities and Merle Curti -Professor of History.

biography

Born to Clarence and Ethel Boyer on August 2, 1935, Paul Samuel Boyer attended Dayton Public Schools and Upland College, California . In the 1950s, Boyer was a conscientious objector of conscience, according to the Christian faith in the denomination of his family. After a two-year stay in the office at the headquarters of the international volunteer labor camp in Paris and practical experience in post-war construction in Bielefeld , he traveled home to the USA via Africa , India and the Far East .

Paul Boyer moved to Harvard University , where he completed his undergraduate studies and later earned his PhD in American history . While at Harvard, he met Ann Talbot from Baltimore , Maryland, and married her in 1962.

The couple moved to Amherst , Massachusetts, where Paul Boyer became Professor of American History at the University of Massachusetts in 1967 . Their children Alex and Kate were born around this time. In 1980 he was appointed to the University of Wisconsin – Madison , where he held the Merle Curti Chair of American History as a member of the history department. In the 1990s he was director of the local humanities institute. He has also taught as visiting professor at UCLA , Northwestern University, and the College of William & Mary . Upon retirement, he became an editor at UW Press and co-authored several college textbooks.

Paul Samuel Boyer died on March 17, 2012 at Agrace Hospicecare after suffering from cancer for three months .

reception

Boyer's interest in religion and the effect of religious belief on American culture is reflected in his works. The most popular work Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft is received positively as well as criticized. The lack of comparative analysis with other cases is criticized, for example. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum , however, are praised for their excellent detailed analysis of the local “witch panic”. In addition, the potential of the work for university courses is mentioned and the use of the sources is received positively.

Awards

Boyer has received grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the American Historical Association, and the American Antiquarian Society . In 1974 he won the John H. Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association for the book Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft In 1975 this book was nominated for the National Book Award in the history category.

Selected publications

• Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1968; 2nd edition with two new chapters, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2002, ISBN 978-0-299-17583-2 .
• Notable American Women, 1600-1950 . Harvard University Press, 3 vols., Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-674-62734-2 .
• Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft . (Associate Editor with Stephen Nissenbaum ), Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1974, ISBN 978-0-674-78526-7 .
• The Salem Witchcraft Papers (co-editor with Stephen Nissenbaum), 3 vol., DaCapo Press, New York 1977, ISBN 9780030670558 .
• Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1978, ISBN 978-0-674-93110-7 .
• By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age. Pantheon, New York 1985, ISBN 978-1-59740-918-6 , 2nd edition with the new introduction, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1994, ISBN 0-8078-4480-2 .
• Mission on Taylor Street: The founding and early years of the Dayton Brethren in Christ Mission (Brethren in Christ history and life) . Grantham, Pennsylvania 1987, ISBN 978-0-916035-16-7 .
• Reagan as President: Contemporary Views of the Man, His Politics, and His Politicies. Edited with an introduction by Paul Boyer, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago 1990, ISBN 978-0-929587-27-1 .
• When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 978-0-674-02861-6 .
• Promises to Keep: The United States Since World War II , Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1994, ISBN 0395903866 .
• Fallout: A Historian Reflects on America's Half-Century Encounter With Nuclear Weapons, Ohio State University Press, Columbus 1998, ISBN 978-0-8142-0785-7 .
• American History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538914-2 .
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History . Co-authored by Joan Shelley Rubin and Scott E. Casper, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013; ISBN 978-0-19-976435-8 .

credentials

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Paul Samuel Boyer. March 17, 2012, Retrieved July 15, 2019 (American English). 
2. ^ History Doyen: Paul Samuel Boyer | History News Network. Retrieved July 15, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Paul Samuel Boyer. March 17, 2012, Retrieved August 26, 2019 (American English). 
4. ↑ Review by Cedric B. Cowing, The American Historical Review. December 1975, Retrieved August 26, 2019 . 
5. ^ Review Salem Possessed, The History Teacher. May 1976, Retrieved August 26, 2019 . 
6. ^ ^{A b} Salem Possessed - Paul Boyer, Stephen Nissenbaum | Harvard University Press. Retrieved July 15, 2019 .