Edward Countryman

Edward Countryman (July 31, 1944 – March 24, 2025) was an American historian known for his study of the American Revolution. He taught at Yale University, University of Canterbury, and Southern Methodist University.^[1]

Life and career

Edward Francis Countryman Jr., born in Glens Falls, New York, on July 31, 1944, graduated from Manhattan College in 1966, and from Cornell University with an MA, and a Ph.D. in 1971.^[1]

He taught at Yale University, University of Canterbury, University of Warwick, University of Cambridge. Latterly, he was a Distinguished University Professor at Southern Methodist University from 1991 to 2022.^[1][2] According to the New York Times, his "wide-ranging studies of the various groups — politicians, laborers, Native Americans and more — at work during the American Revolution helped usher in a more complex understanding of the nation’s founding." He also promoted the idea that the American Revolution was a social revolution, with "elites forced to give ground to the working and farming classes."^[1]

Countryman was married to Evonne van Heussen, after a prior marriage ended in divorce. He had three children. He died in Dallas, Texas on March 24, 2025, at the age of 80.^[1]

Awards

• 1983–1991 Royal Historical Society
• L.H.D. Honoris Causa Manhattan College
• 1982 Bancroft Prize for A People in Revolution
• 1966–1971 Danforth Graduate Fellow
• 1966–1967 Woodrow Wilson Fellow

Works

• A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760-1790. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1981. ISBN 9780801826252. OCLC 7551670. Reprinted as a paperback in 1989; see A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760-1790. W. W. Norton. 1989. ISBN 9780393306064.
• The American Revolution. Hill & Wang. 1985. ISBN 978-0-8090-2562-6. Revised edition Macmillan, 2003 ISBN 978-0-8090-2562-6.
• Americans: A Collision of Histories. Hill & Wang. 1996. ISBN 978-0-8090-1598-6. Revised edition Macmillan, 1997, ISBN 978-0-8090-1598-6.
• Shane. British Film Institute. 1999. ISBN 978-0-85170-732-7. Co-author with Evonne von Heussen-Countryman.
• The Empire State, co-author, Cornell University Press, 2001
• Enjoy the Same Liberty: Black Americans and the Revolutionary Era. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4422-0028-9.

Historians at Work, series editor

• What Did the Constitution Mean To Early Americans?. Bedford/St. Martin's. January 15, 1999. ISBN 978-0-312-18262-5.
• How Did American Slavery Begin?. Bedford/St. Martin's. January 15, 1999. ISBN 978-0-312-18261-8.

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20100331065626/http://smu.edu/history/faculty/countryman.shtml