Richard Slotkin

Richard Sidney Slotkin (born November 8, 1942)^[1] is a cultural critic and historian. He is the Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Emeritus at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and, since 2010, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[2][3] Slotkin writes novels, predominantly historical ones, alongside his historical research, and uses the process of writing the novels to clarify and refine his historical work.^[4]

Richard Sidney Slotkin was born on November 8, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. He received a B.A. degree from Brooklyn College in 1963 and a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University in 1967.^[3][5]

He started teaching at Wesleyan University in 1966 and helped establish the school's American studies and film studies program.^[6] He remained at Wesleyan until his retirement in 2009.^[5]

Regeneration Through Violence received the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association as the Best Book in American History (1973) and was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1974.^[7][8] Gunfighter Nation was a National Book Award Finalist in 1993.^[9] In 1995, Slotkin received the Mary C. Turpie Award of the American Studies Association for his contributions to teaching and program-building.^[10] His novel Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln won the 2000 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction.^[11]

In 1976, he received an honorary Master of Arts degree in Art Education from Wesleyan University.^[5]

His 2024 book, A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America, was longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.^[12]

• Regeneration Through Violence: the Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860 (Wesleyan University Press, 1973)
• The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War (Atheneum, 1980)
• Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, (Atheneum, 1985)
• The Return of Henry Starr (Atheneum, 1988)
• Gunfighter Nation: Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (Atheneum, 1992)
• Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln (Henry Holt and Company, 2000)
• Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality (Henry Holt and Company, 2005)
• No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 (Random House, 2009)
• The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012)^[13]
• Greenhorns: Stories (Leapfrog Press, 2018)
• A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America (Belknap Press, 2024)

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Richard Slotkin Papers. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.