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Michael Adas
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Michael Adas
Michael Adas (born 1943) is an American historian and author known for his contributions to Global History, the History of technology, and colonial and post-colonial studies. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Rutgers University, where he held the Abraham E. Voorhees Chair in History and served as a Board of Governors Chair.
He has written on Western dominance, anticolonialism, and the comparative History of warfare and development.
He was born in 1943 to Harold A., and Elizabeth Rivard Adas. He developed an early interest in history through extensive childhood reading, particularly works exploring the impact of warfare on historical development. Though initially discouraged by the rote methods of history instruction in secondary school, he remained an avid reader of both historical fiction and nonfiction.
He attended Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), where he graduated summa cum laude in 1965. During his undergraduate studies, Adas was deeply influenced by historian Ernest Breisach, whose courses on the Italian Renaissance underscored the intellectual and pedagogical challenges of historical scholarship. Adas initially considered a career in acting, having participated in school plays and competitive debate during his youth. However, after receiving mixed reviews for minor theatrical roles in his freshman year of college and inspired by the rigor of his history coursework, he shifted his focus to academia.
He graduated from University of Wisconsin–Madison earning two M.A. degrees, History (1967) and Indian Studies (1968), as well as his Ph.D. in Comparative Tropical History in 1971.
Adas joined the Department of History at Rutgers University in 1970. He was promoted to full professor in 1978 and held various leadership roles, including Department Chair (1979–1981). In 1996, he was named a Board of Governors Chair and the Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History. He retired from teaching in 2015 but continues to write and contribute to scholarly research.
At Rutgers University, Adas won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellow Award in 1984 and the Warren Susman Teaching Award in 1987. He won the NJ-NEH Book Award in 1990, and the Dexter Prize in 1991 for Machines as the Measure of Men. In 1992, he won the Teacher of the Year Award. Adas also won the exclusive Toynbee Prize in 2012.
Adas’s early scholarly work, particularly his first two books The Burma Delta: Economic Development and Social Change on an Asian Rice Frontier, 1852–1941 and Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest and the Colonial Order garnered international attention and played a role in his rapid promotion to full professor at Rutgers University. He also collaborated with Peter Stearns and Stuart Schwartz on the widely used world history textbook Turbulent Passage: A Global History of the Twentieth Century, co-authoring eight editions.
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Michael Adas
Michael Adas (born 1943) is an American historian and author known for his contributions to Global History, the History of technology, and colonial and post-colonial studies. He is Professor Emeritus of History at Rutgers University, where he held the Abraham E. Voorhees Chair in History and served as a Board of Governors Chair.
He has written on Western dominance, anticolonialism, and the comparative History of warfare and development.
He was born in 1943 to Harold A., and Elizabeth Rivard Adas. He developed an early interest in history through extensive childhood reading, particularly works exploring the impact of warfare on historical development. Though initially discouraged by the rote methods of history instruction in secondary school, he remained an avid reader of both historical fiction and nonfiction.
He attended Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI), where he graduated summa cum laude in 1965. During his undergraduate studies, Adas was deeply influenced by historian Ernest Breisach, whose courses on the Italian Renaissance underscored the intellectual and pedagogical challenges of historical scholarship. Adas initially considered a career in acting, having participated in school plays and competitive debate during his youth. However, after receiving mixed reviews for minor theatrical roles in his freshman year of college and inspired by the rigor of his history coursework, he shifted his focus to academia.
He graduated from University of Wisconsin–Madison earning two M.A. degrees, History (1967) and Indian Studies (1968), as well as his Ph.D. in Comparative Tropical History in 1971.
Adas joined the Department of History at Rutgers University in 1970. He was promoted to full professor in 1978 and held various leadership roles, including Department Chair (1979–1981). In 1996, he was named a Board of Governors Chair and the Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History. He retired from teaching in 2015 but continues to write and contribute to scholarly research.
At Rutgers University, Adas won the John Simon Guggenheim Fellow Award in 1984 and the Warren Susman Teaching Award in 1987. He won the NJ-NEH Book Award in 1990, and the Dexter Prize in 1991 for Machines as the Measure of Men. In 1992, he won the Teacher of the Year Award. Adas also won the exclusive Toynbee Prize in 2012.
Adas’s early scholarly work, particularly his first two books The Burma Delta: Economic Development and Social Change on an Asian Rice Frontier, 1852–1941 and Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest and the Colonial Order garnered international attention and played a role in his rapid promotion to full professor at Rutgers University. He also collaborated with Peter Stearns and Stuart Schwartz on the widely used world history textbook Turbulent Passage: A Global History of the Twentieth Century, co-authoring eight editions.