Lawrence W. Levine is a cultural historian who taught for thirty two years at the University of California, Berkeley and retired in 1994 as Margaret Byrne Professor of History. Since then Levine has been Professor of History and Cultural Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Levine lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC during the fall semesters while teaching at GMU and spends the rest of the year reading and writing in Berkeley. His work includes a biography of William Jennings Bryan and his role in the growing cultural divide in American politics after World War One (Defender of the Faith); a study of African American folk thought from slavery through freedom (Black Culture and Black Consciousness); a study of the emergence of cultural hierarchy in 19th century America (Highbrow/Lowbrow); a series of explorations into diverse patterns of American cultural history (The Unpredictable Past ); a history and defense of the evolution of the curriculum in American higher education (The Opening of the American Mind ), and most recently, with Cornelia R. Levine, a study of Franklin Roosevelt's Fireside Chats and a collection of the responses to them by the American people (The People and the President). He is currently working on a cultural history of the United States during the Great Depression. Brief CV Professor of History and Cultural Studies, George
Mason University BOOKS: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century America, co-edited with Richard Abrams (Boston: Little, Brown, 1964) Defender of the Faith: William Jennings Bryan, The Last Decade, 1915-1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965) The National Temper, co-edited with Robert Middlekauff (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1968) Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977) Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) The Opening of the American Mind: Canons, Culture, and History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996) The People and the President: America's Conversation with FDR, with Cornelia R. Levine (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002) AWARDS AND HONORS: Social Science Research Council Fellow, 1965-1966 3-year research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, 1970-73 Phi Beta Kappa Bicentennial Fellow, 1974-1975 Chicago Folklore Prize, 1977, for Black Culture and Black Consciousness Regents Fellow, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, 1981-1982 Wilson Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution, 1982-3 MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellow, 1983-1988 Elected to Society of American Historians, 1983 Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1985 Delivered the Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization, Harvard University, 1986 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 1990-1991 Delivered the Merle Curti Lectures in History, University of Wisconsin, 1991 Guggenheim Fellow, 1994-1995 Delivered the Carl Becker Lectures, Cornell University, 1995 Outstanding Book Award for 1996-1997 from the History of Education Society for The Opening of the American Mind. Honorary Doctorate of Arts & Letters, State University of N. Y., May, 2000 OTHER RELEVANT ACTIVITIES: Member, National Council, American Studies Association, 1980-1983 Served as Chair or member of the Merle Curti Prize Committee, (OAH), John Hope Franklin Prize Committee (ASA), Frederick Jackson Turner Prize Committee (OAH) Associate Editor, Journal of American Folklore, 1985-1990 Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Film & History Member, Council, American Historical Association, 1987-1990 Member, Executive Board, Organization of American Historians, 1984-1987, 1991-1996 President, Organization of American Historians, 1992-1993 Member Advisory Boards of Afro-American Studies Department, Harvard University and Afro-American Studies Program, Princeton University Member, Advisory Board, Echo: A Music-Centered Journal, 1999- Member, Board of Advisors, Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble of N. Y., 1999-
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