Daniel R. Mandell, Professor of History

Prof. Mandell focuses on early America, Native American history, and the history of American law.  His most recent book The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality in America, 1600-1870 (described here), was published in April 2020 by Johns Hopkins University Press, and has been given the 2021 “Best Book Award” by the Missouri Conference on History.  He used material from chapter 3 to write this commentary for the Washington Post.  This piece in TIME provides a quick glimpse of the book’s ideas and then presents elements of chapter 9.  This short summary of the book in The Conversation has been republished in various newspapers, and this short blog entry describes why he wrote the book.  You can see three talks about the book: a “Fireside Chat” in Nov 2021 sponsored by the Library Company of Philadelphia, here; and a talk in Oct 2020 sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society, here; and a book webinar sponsored by the Mass. Historical Society in May 2020 here.  You can also listen to a podcast interview on the book that he did with the Rogue Historian here.

E-Mail:  dmandell@truman.edu
Mailing Address:
Daniel Mandell
24 Zenith Drive
Worcester, MA 01602
In 2018-2019, Prof. Mandell was Distinguished Research Fellow at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, beginning a study of the evolving conundrum between individual and collective rights in the U.S. highlighted by the evolution of Native American policies and laws.

In 2016, Prof. Mandell received the award for Distinguished Literary Achievement from the Missouri Humanities Council in recognition of his many publications on Native Americans in New England between 1600 and 1900.  King Philip’s War: Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), written for general readers and college survey classes, was named an “Outstanding Academic Title” by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine.  Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780-1880 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), was given the inaugural Lawrence Levine Award in 2008 by the Organization of American Historians for the best book on American cultural history.  He has also written King Philip’s War: The Conflict Over New England  (Chelsea House Publications, 2007); the Northern and Western New England Treaties and Southern New England Treaties volumes (nos. 19 and 20) in the series Early American Indian Documents: Treaties and Laws (University Press of America, 2003); and Behind the Frontier: Indians in Eighteenth-Century Eastern Massachusetts (University of Nebraska Press, 1996).  Prof. Mandell has also published various articles in edited collections, encyclopedias, and journals including the Journal of American History and the William and Mary Quarterly.

Mandell received his doctorate and masters degrees in History from the University of Virginia.  He also received a masters degree in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University and a bachelors degree in History from Humboldt State University, California.  He has received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Truman State University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, American Antiquarian Society, Old Sturbridge Village, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; he has also been a short-term research fellow at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.  He is an elected member of: the American Antiquarian Society, a scholarly society and research library over 200 years old that holds the largest collection of materials printed in North America through 1876; the Massachusetts Historical Society, the oldest historical preservation and research society in the United States; and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.