Orlando Patterson

Horace Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican-American historian and sociologist known for his work on the history of race and slavery in the United States and Jamaica, as well as the sociology of development. He is currently the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Patterson's 1991 book Freedom in the Making of Western Culture won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Early life and education Horace Orlando Patterson was born on 5 June 1940 in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica, to Almina Morris and Charles A. Patterson. His parents were strong supporters of Jamaica's People National Party, the political party he grew up to serve a few decades later. His father was a local detective, and his mother became a seamstress. He had six half-siblings on his father's side but was his mother's only child. He grew up in Clarendon Parish in the small town of May Pen. He attended primary school there, then moved to Kingston to attend Kingston College. While attending Kingston College, Patterson won a Jamaica Government Exhibition scholarship in 1958. Before matriculating in 1959, he taught for a year at the Excelsior High School in Jamaica. He served as president of the Economics Society, president of the Literary Society and editor of the student magazine The Pelican. He also wrote for the recently founded New Left Review, his first work being "The Essays of James Baldwin" in 1964. While in London he was associated with the Caribbean Artists Movement, whose second meeting, in January 1967, was held at the Pattersons' North London flat.

Career

Earlier in his career, Patterson was concerned with the economic and political development of his home country, Jamaica. He served as special advisor to Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1972 to 1979 while serving as a tenured professor at Harvard University. Committed to working both jobs, Patterson split his time between Jamaica and the United States. He often flew to Jamaica the day after his last lecture. Other contributions include historical sociology and fictional writing with themes of post-colonialism. Patterson has also spent time analyzing social science's scholarship and ethical considerations.

Patterson currently holds the John Cowles Chair in sociology at Harvard University.

In October 2015 he received the Gold Musgrave Medal in recognition of his contribution to literature. In 2020 he was appointed a member of the Order of Merit, Jamaica's third-highest national honour.

In 2024 he was the receiver of the Hegel Prize in Stuttgart.

Professional associations Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences Ernest W. Burgess Fellow, American Academy of Political and Social Science Member, American Sociological Association

Awards 2024: Hegel Prize 2020: Order of Merit, Jamaica. "For his highly distinguished international contribution to Academia, West Indian Literature, Sociology, and the Epistemology of Social Culture" Order of Jamaica 2016: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lifetime Achievement 2015: Gold Musgrave Medal 1997: Walter Channing Cabot Faculty Prize, Harvard 1991: National Book Award, Non-Fiction 1983: Walter Channing Cabot Faculty Prize, Harvard 1983: American Political Science Association 1983: Ralph Bunche Award from Howard University for the Best Scholarly Work on Pluralism (co-winner): American 1983: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (formerly Sorokin Prize): American Sociological Association 1965: Best Novel in English (The Children of Sisyphus): Dakar Festival of Negro Arts

Selected works

Academic

The Sociology of Slavery: Black Society in Jamaica, 1655-1838. 1967; 2022(2nd ed.). Ethnic Chauvinism: The Reactionary Impulse. 1977.

Later renamed Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture – winner of National Book Award The Ordeal of Integration. 1997

The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth (with Ethan Fosse). 2015. The Confounding Island: Jamaica and the Postcolonial Predicament. 2019. The Sociology of Slavery: Black Society in Jamaica. Wiley, 2022. The Paradox of Freedom: A Biographical Dialogue (with David Scott) 2023

Novels The Children of Sisyphus. 1965. An Absence of Ruins. 1967. Die the Long Day. 1972.

Articles and chapters

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