Professor of History Daniel Mandell receives American Antiquarian Society research fellowship

During 2012-2013, Truman history professor Daniel Mandell will focus on research and writing at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worchester, Mass., thanks to a long-term fellowship awarded by the AAS and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  He will also spend a week as a visiting scholar at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies.  Mandell’s project, which began with his sabbatical in 2007, is a study of changing concepts of equality in America.

The AAS, founded 200 years ago, is one of the oldest research libraries in the United States, with one of the most complete holdings of materials published in America before 1850.  The NEH provides much of the funding for the Society to give three long-term research fellowships every year to scholars who apply on an international competitive basis.  Mandell will spend most of his time at the Society reading relevant children’s literature, newspapers, pamphlets, and periodicals published between 1790 and 1850,.  He also expects to write large segments of the book manuscript, which will examine questions of class and ideas of equality from 1600 through 1880.

The Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, founded in 1930, is one of the world’s foremost centers for groundbreaking theoretical science and humanities research, with closely linked Schools of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Historical Studies.  Every year each of the Schools brings together scholars to conduct and share research on aspects of a broad topic; Mandell will be participating in the School of Social Studies, which this coming year will focus on the theme of “Economics and Politics.”