Jon T. Coleman
His two books thus far have explored American tales of wolves, bears, mountain men and the truths behind myths.
Now, University of 91³Ō¹Ļ History Professor has been awarded a fellowship to work on an environmental history of movement in America before the widespread use of automobiles and airplanes.
āIām interested in how travel and migration interacted with other natural movements like seasonal cycles of plant growth ā such as grass to feed beasts of burden ā and hydrological and weather cycles that influenced river flows and wind patterns for sailing,ā Coleman says.
He plans to use his fellowship to conduct research for a book that will focus on the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, or roughly 1783 to 1860.
Colemanās first book, āVicious: Wolves and Men in Americaā (Yale University Press, 2004), won the American Historical Associationās 2005 John H. Dunning Prize and the Western History Associationās 2005 W. Turrentine Jackson Award.
In 2012, he published āHere Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, A Bear and the Rise of the American Nationā (Hill and Wang). The book examines the story and times of Glass, who in 1823 was left for dead in the wilderness of South Dakota after being mauled by a bear, only to crawl back to civilization.
Glass vowed revenge on those who abandoned him ā a revenge that never happened. Instead, his legend grew to be recalled as an ultimate wilderness adventure that Coleman says still resonates.
āLike my other books, this new one will deal with animals a lot,ā he says. āBut I want to integrate animals into larger natural histories of grass, water and wind.ā
The historianās environmental work is also not just about the past, he notes. āI definitely want this project to get people thinking about how they move today.ā
Coleman is currently working with colleagues John Mack Faragher and Robert Hine to complete the revised edition of a textbook called āThe American West: A New Interpretive Historyā (Yale University Press).
āI hope to finish my updating and revisions over the next couple months, then Iāll turn it over to John. While he has the manuscript, I will get going on the movement project.ā
The Guggenheim, Coleman says, āgives me the amazing opportunity to focus all my time over the next year on this project, and I will be traveling to archives across the country to gather material.ā
Coleman is the second 91³Ō¹Ļ historian in as many years to receive Guggenheim funding. , professor of history and director of the College of Arts and Lettersā , was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2012 for her book project āChristian Perceptions of Muslim Identity in Medieval Spain.ā
Originally published by Mike Danahey at on June 7, 2013.