Marcus Rediker, Award-Winning Pitt Historian and Author, to Receive James A. Rawley Prize for "The Slave Ship: A Human History"

PITTSBURGH-Marcus Rediker, University of Pittsburgh professor of history and chair of the Department of History in the School of Arts and Sciences, will receive the 2008 James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History for his award-winning book, "The Slave Ship: A Human History" (Viking Penguin, 2007). The award will be presented at the American Historical Association's annual meeting in New York City in January.

The James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History recognizes outstanding historical writing that explores aspects of integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century. The prize was established in accordance with the terms of a gift from James A. Rawley, Carl Adolph Happold Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Books considered for the prize are of high scholarly and literary merit as well as evaluated for research accuracy and originality.

Rediker has received other honors for "The Slave Ship." In March, he was selected the 2008 Merle Curti Award winner by the Organization of American Historians, who bestowed the honor at its annual meeting in New York City, and, in May, he received the fourth annual $50,000 George Washington Book Prize at Mt. Vernon.

At Pitt since 1994, Rediker also is the author of "Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age" (Beacon Press/Verso, 2004); "The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic" (Beacon Press/Verso, 2000); "Who Built America? Working People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society," Volume 1 (Pantheon Books, 1989); and "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750" (Cambridge University Press, 1987).

Rediker's writings have been translated into French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. His many honors include a 2001 International Labor History Book Prize, a 1988 Merle Curti Social History Book Award, and a 1988 John Hope Franklin Book Prize. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In addition, the Organization of American Historians named him Distinguished Lecturer for 2002 through 2008.

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