Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something
Nothing was collected or created yet.
Daniel Walker Howe
View on Wikipedia
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2026) |
Daniel Gething Walker Howe (January 10, 1937 – December 25, 2025) was an American historian who specialized in the early national period of U.S. history, with a particular interest in its intellectual and religious dimensions.
He was Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University in England (from 1992 to 2002 then Emeritus)[1] and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for History for What Hath God Wrought (2007).[2] He was president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic in 2001, and was a Fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[3] and the Royal Historical Society.
Early life and education
[edit]Howe was born in Ogden, Utah, on January 10, 1937.[4] He graduated from East High School in Denver. He received his Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University in 1959, magna cum laude in American history and literature, and his Ph.D. in history at University of California, Berkeley, in 1966. Howe's connection with Oxford University began when he matriculated at Magdalen College to read modern history in 1960, receiving his M.A. in 1965.[5]
Career
[edit]Howe taught at Yale University from 1966 to 1973), UCLA from 1973 to 1992, where he chaired the history department, and Oxford University from 1992 to 2002. In 2011 he spent a semester as a visiting professor at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
In 1989–1990 Howe was Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford and a fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. In 1992 he became a permanent member of the Oxford history faculty and a fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford until his retirement in 2002. Brasenose College, Oxford elected him an Honorary Member of its Senior Common Room.
Personal life and death
[edit]Howe married Sandra Shumway; they had three children. He died at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, on December 25, 2025, at the age of 88.[4][6]
Awards and honors
[edit]Howe received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Weber State University in 2014.[7][8]
Books
[edit]- The Unitarian Conscience: Harvard Moral Philosophy, 1805-1861. Cambridge Mass: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. 1970. ISBN 978-0-674-92121-4.
- Blodgett, Geoffrey (1976). Daniel Walker Howe (ed.). Victorian America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-7713-5.
- The Political Culture of the American Whigs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1979. ISBN 978-0-226-35479-8.
- Making the American Self. Cambridge, Mass. London: Harvard Univ. Press. 1997. ISBN 978-0-674-16555-7.
- What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (Oxford University Press, 2007), volume 5 of the Oxford History of the United States [9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Professors Emeritus" (PDF). ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 25, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
- ^ "The 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winners: History". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 25, 2013. With short biography and dustjacket description.
- ^ "Daniel Walker Howe | American Academy of Arts and Sciences". www.amacad.org. January 14, 2026. Retrieved January 14, 2026.
- ^ a b Traub, Alex (January 11, 2026). "Daniel Walker Howe, Historian of Antebellum America, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved January 12, 2026.
- ^ webteam (January 6, 2026). "Daniel Howe". UCLA Department of History. Retrieved January 14, 2026.
- ^ "Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, dead at 88". ABC News. January 10, 2026. Retrieved January 10, 2026.
- ^ "Honorary Degree and Commencement Speaker". Weber State University. Retrieved January 12, 2026.
- ^ "Daniel Walker Howe honored by Weber State University". UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History. October 28, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2026.
- ^ Howe, Daniel Walker (2009). "America's Conning of Age: Daniel Walker Howe's". Technology and Culture. 50 (1). [The Johns Hopkins University Press, Society for the History of Technology]: 187–192. ISSN 0040-165X. JSTOR 40061574. Retrieved January 14, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Daniel W. Howe, Professor Emeritus, UCLA
- Daniel Walker Howe at Library of Congress, with 8 library catalog records
- Appearances on C-SPAN
