Joanne B. Freeman Explained

Joanne B. Freeman
Birth Name:Joanne B. Freeman
Birth Date:27 April 1962
Birth Place:New York City, U.S.
Known For:studies on the American Revolution and the early U.S.
Alma Mater:Pomona College (BA)
University of Virginia (MA, PhD)
Employer:Yale University
Occupation:professor, author, historian
Awards:Best Book Award, 2001 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR)
William Clyde DeVane Teaching Award, Yale University, 2017

Joanne B. Freeman (born April 27, 1962) is a U.S. historian and tenured Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University. Freeman has published two books as well as articles and op-eds in newspapers including The New York Times,[1] [2] magazines such as The Atlantic and Slate. In 2005 she was rated one of the "Top Young Historians" in the U.S.[3] [4]

Early life and education

Freeman was born in Queens, New York City, in 1962. She graduated from Pomona College in 1984 and received both her MA (1993) and PhD (1998) in American History from University of Virginia; her doctoral advisor was Peter S. Onuf, a major scholar on U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Prior to graduate school, Freeman was a public historian, delivering lectures at a range of US history-centric institutions including the Smithsonian, South Street Seaport, Museum of American Finance and the Library of Congress over a span of seven years. Her area of expertise is political culture of early America, particularly the revolutionary and early national eras. .

Career

In addition to editing Alexander Hamilton: Writings for the Library of America in 2001, Freeman is the author of Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic (2001). Her first book, Affairs of Honor, received praise for being "analytically incisive" from Stanford University historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Jack Rakove and "enormously original" from Rutgers University history Professor and Thomas Jefferson scholar Jan Lewis.[5] In this debut work, Freeman lays out the challenges that early patriots faced as they struggled to create a new and independent country. Freeman posits that office-holders and office-seekers were particularly immersed in conflict: "Regional distrust, personal animosity, accusation, suspicion, implication, and denouncement—this was the tenor of national politics from the outset.” [6]

A prominent focus of her research has been the practice of dueling, including those rules governing one of the most famous encounters in history between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. In an interview with fellow historians Kenneth T. Jackson and Valerie Paley, Hamilton author Ron Chernow called attention to Freeman's work and her discovery that Hamilton had been involved in ten previous character challenges prior to the eleventh and fatal event. [7]

Freeman's series of lectures on the American Revolution is one of 42 courses offered online by Open Yale Courses.

Freeman has been interviewed for several documentaries about Hamilton. These have aired on American Experience (PBS) and The Discovery Channel. In 2002, she appeared in Founding Brothers with fellow historians Ron Chernow, Richard Brookhiser, David McCullough, and Carol Berkin on The History Channel; the two-part program and overview of five founders – George Washington, Hamilton, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson – was based on the Pulitzer Prize winning 2000 book of the same title by Joseph Ellis.[8] [9] [10] [11]

Freeman's published findings about the history of dueling helped inspire the song "Ten Duel Commandments" in the Tony Award winning 2015 musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda.[12] Though she agrees with fellow historians that the show has historical errors, she is a fan of the Broadway hit and its creator and believes it is engendering interest in the Founding Fathers. [13] Freeman has also appeared in the 2017 PBS documentary Hamilton's America that traced the making of the musical.[14] [15]

Recent Work

Freeman worked for two years as a historical consultant for the National Park Service in the reconstruction of the Hamilton Grange National Memorial.[16] [17] In 2017, she edited and published The Essential Hamilton: Letters & Other Writings, with the Library of America. Her latest book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War, documents and analyzes episodes of physical violence between antagonistic members of U.S. Congress in the decades before the Civil War; it was published September 11, 2018, by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Starting February 3, 2017, Freeman joined the crew of the popular weekly American History radio show BackStory as a co-host; the show based out of University of Virginia was also a popular podcast. The premise of the one hour program was to examine contemporary happenings through the lens of the past.[18] BackStory wrapped production in July 2020.[19]

Since 2021 Freeman has co-hosted the podcast Now & Then with fellow historian Heather Cox Richardson.[20] The show ended production in October 2023, but previous episodes can still be heard on Spotify.

Awards

Fellowships

Publications

Books

Articles and essays

Additional publications

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The New York Times. Joanne B. Freeman. Luisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louis Thomas. April 10, 2017.
  2. Web site: The New York Times. Joanne B. Freeman. The Long History of Political Idiocy.
  3. Web site: Yale University. Department of History:Joanne Freeman . April 9, 2017.
  4. Web site: Slate. Joanne B. Freeman. How Hamilton Uses History: What Lin-Manuel Miranda Included in His Portrait of a Heroic, Complicated Founding Father—and What He Left Out. April 9, 2017.
  5. Web site: Library of Congress. Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic and Alexander Hamilton, Writings. April 11, 2017.
  6. Web site: The Baffler. Chris Bray. Tip and Gip Sip and Quip-The politics of never. April 11, 2017.
  7. Web site: New-York Historical Society. History Makers: A Conversation, An Interview with Ron Chernow. Kenneth T. Jackson and Virginia Paley. April 11, 2017.
  8. Web site: Daily News. Richard Huff. They Forged A Nation. April 11, 2017.
  9. Joanne B. Freeman, Dueling as Politics: Reinterpreting the Burr-Hamilton Duel, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3d series, 53 (April 1996): 289–318.
  10. Web site: January 13, 2002. New York Times. Christopher Caldwell. Liar, Scoundrel, Puppy. April 9, 2017.
  11. Web site: Weehawken Historical Commission. Hamilton-Burr Duel Bicentennial.
  12. Web site: University of Virginia. Alumna's Research Guided Fiery Lyrics and Duels of Broadway Hit 'Hamilton. April 9, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170410051302/https://www.news.virginia.edu/content/alumnas-research-guided-fiery-lyrics-and-duels-broadway-hit-hamilton. April 10, 2017. dead.
  13. Web site: Boston Globe. Josh Cornfield. Did Martha Washington really name a cat after Alexander Hamilton?. April 11, 2017.
  14. Web site: Huffington Post. Katherine Brooks. Inside The History Documentary Every 'Hamilton' Fan Will Want To See. April 9, 2017.
  15. Web site: Washington Post. Megan McDonough. At screening of 'Hamilton' documentary, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says he always knew the Founding Father was a pop star. April 9, 2017.
  16. Web site: SunyCortland. April 11, 2017. Author, Historian Joanne Freeman to speak April 30.
  17. Web site: National Park Service. Welcome to Hamilton's 'Sweet Project'Grand Re-Opening – September 17, 2011. April 10, 2017.
  18. Web site: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Meet the Guys. April 9, 2017.
  19. Web site: American Archive; BackStory.
  20. Web site: Vox Media: Podcast Network | Now & then.
  21. Web site: Yale. Two faculty members and a Yale alumna win awards from Phi Beta Kappa. April 9, 2017.
  22. Web site: Library of Congress. Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic and Alexander Hamilton, Writings. April 11, 2017.

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