Nancy Isenberg
T. Harry Williams Professor
225A Himes Hall
225-578-4492
Courses Taught
Crime, Conspiracy and Courtroom Dramas; Scandals in American History; Graduate Reading Seminar to 1800; America鈥檚 Founding Myths
Current Research Interests
American political culture, and legal and constitutional history in the U.S.
Interested in Directing Theses On
Early American politics and law, and class, gender and racial conflicts in U.S. History
Education
B.A., History, Rutgers University, 1980; M.A., Ph.D., American History, University of Wisconsin, 1990
Awards and Honors
2017 海角社区 Distinguished Research Master Award
Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize from the Columbia School of Journalism
and Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, 2017.
Finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize in History, 2017
#4 on Politico Magazine鈥檚 Annual List of the 鈥�50 Most important Thinkers鈥� of 2016.
Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, for
Op-Eds on the musical Hamilton, 2016
2008 Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography
2008 Award for best non-fiction book, Oklahoma Center for the Book, for Fallen Founder
2007-2008, 2003-2004, Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian
Society.
2003, First Union International Fellowship, International Center for Jefferson Studies.
1999 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) book prize for
Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America
Notable Articles
鈥淟eft Behind,鈥� New York Review of Books (June 28, 2018): 16-20.
鈥淐osmopolitanism vs. Provincialism: How the Politics of Place Hurts America,鈥� with Andrew Burstein, Hedgehog Review, Vol. 19, no. 2 (Summer 2017): 58-69.
鈥淭o Stand Out in Heresy鈥�: Lucretia Mott, Liberty, and the Hysterical Woman,鈥� Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (January 2003)
鈥淟aissez-Unfaire: Gender and the Political Manipulation of the Common Law in Antebellum America,鈥� Tulsa Law Review (Summer 2002)
鈥淣ot 鈥楢nyone鈥檚 Daughter鈥�: Patty Hearst and the Postmodern Legal Subject,鈥� American Quarterly (December 2000)
鈥� 鈥楶illars in the Same Temple and Priests of the Same Worship鈥�: The Feminist Politics of Church and State in Antebellum America,鈥� Journal of American History (June 1998)
Books
The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality (forthcoming from Viking, 2019). Coauthored with Andrew Burstein.
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America (Viking, 2016)
Madison and Jefferson (Random House, 2010). Coauthored with Andrew Burstein
Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr (Viking, 2007)
Mortal Remains: Death in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003). Co-edited with Andrew Burstein
Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America (University of North Carolina Press, 1998)