James Merrell

James Hart Merrell (born 1953 in Minnesota) is an American historian specializing in early American history. He has written extensively on Native American history during the colonial era, and is one of only five historians to be awarded the Bancroft Prize twice. He is the Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History Emeritus at Vassar College.

Education Merrell was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1982.

Career Merrell was a Fellow at The Newberry Library Center for the History of the American Indian in Chicago and at the Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia. He has also received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1990 Frederick Jackson Turner Award, for The Indians' New World: Catawbas and their Neighbors from European Contact Through the Era of Removal The Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians Bancroft Prize (twice) 1990 – The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal 2000 – Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History for Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier