Patrick Allitt

Patrick N. Allitt (born 1956) is a British historian and academic who serves as the Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University. He has written seven books on religious history, education, politics and environmental history, and has produced several lectures for The Great Courses.

Early life and education Allitt was born in 1956 in Mickleover on the outskirts of Derby in Derbyshire. He studied at Hertford College, Oxford (1974–1977), then moved to America and gained a PhD in American history at University of California Berkeley (1986).

Career He held the Arthur Blank Chair for Teaching Excellence at Emory University and was, for five years, director of Emory's Center for Teaching and Curriculum. He is now the Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

His recent publications include contributions to The American Conservative, The Spectator (London), The National Interest, and Modern Intellectual History. He is also the principal lecturer in seven of "The Great Courses" made by The Teaching Company of Chantilly, Virginia. He has spoken in many parts of the United States and lead college-level teaching workshops. In the late 1980s, he wrote a short history of American biographies of Jesus Christ.

His scholarship has been widely reviewed in history journals. In 2004, Lawrence Moore, a Cornell University professor, said, "Any writer who has attempted to track a subject through a long stretch of time appreciates how difficult it is to balance the requirement of inclusiveness with a consistent elaboration of central themes. Patrick Allitt in his confident survey of American religion since World War II succeeds in this task far better than most and has produced a volume of immense value to university students, general readers, and scholars needing a reliable reference source."