Daniel Howe

Many will be saddened to learn of the death on Christmas Day of Dan Howe. Dan was the Rhodes Professor of American History (and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College) from 1992 to 2002. He had also been the Harmsworth Visiting Professor (attached to Queen’s) in 1989-90.

Daniel Walker Howe was a distinguished historian of the United States in the nineteenth century; and his contribution to the Oxford History of the United States What God Hath Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 (2007) was both a major contribution to the history of the United States, and also won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for History. It was also in many ways his Oxford book, having been prepared during his decade in the Chair.

Dan came to Oxford after a distinguished teaching career at Yale and UCLA, but he readily adapted to the Oxford faculty. All those who worked with him here will remember with affection his straightforward generosity of spirit, his commitment to teaching, and the warmth he brought to many events.