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Peter H. Wood, Professor Emeritus

Peter H. Wood

I have always been interested in early American history and in the interactions of diverse cultures. My undergraduate honors paper at Harvard in 1964 dealt with the Puritans' relations with the Indians, and my doctoral thesis there focused on African Americans in South Carolina before 1740. Since coming to Duke in 1975, I have taught Colonial American History and Native American History, as well as a course on the History of Documentary Film. Long term interests in race relations and in American painting led me to collaborate with art historian Karen Dalton in 1988 on an exhibition and a related book concerning Winslow Homer's images of Blacks. Time spent as the department's Director of Graduate Studies (1988-95) and as one of the professors in the U.S. Survey class (History 91D) has made me increasingly interested in the ways we learn and teach American history. Perhaps for this reason, I have always been actively involved as a humanities advisor on diverse public history projects and as a board member with a variety of grassroots organizations and mainstream institutions. I am a lead author for the US survey textbook, Created Equal, which is now in its second edition.

Contact Info:
Office Location:  
Email Address: send me a message

Education:

Ph.D. Harvard University1972
B.A.University of Oxford (United Kingdom)1966
B.A. Harvard University1964
Research Interests:

Current projects: I played lacrosse at Harvard and Oxford, and I coached the Women's Lacrosse Club for several years after coming to Duke. I grow gourds in Hillsborough, NC, and I am a member of the American Gourd Society.

I have always been interested in early American history and in the interactions of diverse cultures. My undergraduate honors paper at Harvard in 1964 dealt with the Puritans' relations with the Indians, and my doctoral thesis there focused on African Americans in South Carolina before 1740. Since coming to Duke in 1975, I have taught Colonial American History and Native American History, as well as a course on the History of Documentary Film. Long term interests in race relations and in American painting led me to collaborate with art historian Karen Dalton in 1988 on an exhibition and a related book concerning Winslow Homer's images of Blacks. Time spent as the department's Director of Graduate Studies (1988-95) and as one of the professors in the U.S. Survey class (History 91D) has made me increasingly interested in the ways we learn and teach American history. Perhaps for this reason, I have always been actively involved as a humanities advisor on diverse public history projects and as a board member with a variety of grassroots organizations and mainstream institutions. I am a lead author for the US survey textbook, Created Equal, which is now in its second edition.

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. P.H. Wood, Weathering the Storm: Inside Winslow Homer's 'Gulf Stream' (2004), Athens: University of Georgia Press
  2. with Jacqueline Jones, Tim Borstelmann, Elaine May, and Vicki Ruiz, Created Equal (January, 2003), New York, Addison-Wesley-Longman (a college level U.S. History Textbook.)
  3. A new U.S. History Survey, undertaken for Longman with four other authors, in which I am covering the era from pre-Columbian times to 1790 (2003) (Due out in January 2003.)
  4. A short overview of Native American History in the Southeast for the University Press of Virginia (2003)
  5. An essay on the seventeeth-century French explorer Jean Couture (first presented at the 1995 meeting or the Organization of American Historians) (2003)

I received a Rhodes Scholarship in 1964, and I have been awarded research fellowships from Harvard's Charles Warren Center (1974-75), the Guggenheim Foundation (1975 for 1976-77), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (1975-77). I have received the Albert J. Beveridge Award (1974) and the James Harvey Robinson Prize (1984) of the American Historical Association. In 2002, I delivered the Lamar Memorial Lectures at Mercer University in Macon, GA.


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