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In April, Distinguished Professor David Nasaw received the 2007 New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize for his biography Andrew Carnegie (Penguin Press, 2006). The annual prize, now in its second year, is awarded to a nonfiction book on American history or biography that is distinguished by its scholarship, its literary style, and its appeal to both general and academic audiences. In addition to receiving the $50,000 award, Nasaw was also named American Historian Laureate.
In writing Andrew Carnegie, Nasaw used new documentation and research to chart the rise of the son of a Scottish weaver from poverty to a life of wealth and power. After establishing himself as a steel magnate in the United States and as the richest man in the world, Andrew Carnegie went on to become a renowned philanthropist. "David Nasaw's thoroughly researched biography makes Carnegie relevant and compelling to a 21st century audience," noted Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society.
Andrew Carnegie was selected from more than 100 submissions by a committee of historians and New-York Historical Society leaders. Kenneth T. Jackson, a member of the prize committee, praised the book as well as Nasaw's contribution to the field of history, saying, "Andrew Carnegie reminds us why David Nasaw has emerged in the last dozen years as one of the finest and most influential historians in the United States. It is meticulously researched, beautifully written, and persuasively argued."
David Nasaw has been on the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center since 1990. He is currently the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of American History as well as the director of the Center of Humanities at the Graduate Center. He is also the author of The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, which won the Bancroft Prize and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other books include Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements, Children of the City: At Work and at Play, and Schooled to Order: A Social History of Public Schooling in the United States.
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