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Claudio Saunt

クラウディオ・ソーント

Kuraudio Sonto

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1967-01-01 （San Francisco, California, United States）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
San Francisco, California, USA → Athens, Georgia, USA (University of Georgia)

Career

Occupations
historian, author, professor
Active Years
1996-
Affiliations
University of Georgia (Richard B. Russell Professor in American History), Center for Virtual History (Co-Director), Institute of Native American Studies (Associate Director)

Education

Columbia University
Department of History
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1985–1989
Year of Graduation: 1989
Country: United States
Bachelor of Arts in History
Duke University
Department of History
Degree: M.A.
Period: 1989–1991
Year of Graduation: 1991
Country: United States
Master of Arts in American History
Duke University
Early America
Degree: Ph.D.
Period: 1991–1996
Year of Graduation: 1996
Country: United States
Ph.D. in Early American History

Awards

Charles S. Snydor Award (Southern Historical Association)
2000
Work: A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816
Organization: Southern Historical Association
Result: winner
Wheeler-Voegelin Award (American Society for Ethnohistory)
2000
Work: A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816
Organization: American Society for Ethnohistory
Result: winner
Clements Prize (Southern Methodist University)
2005
Work: Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family
Organization: Southern Methodist University Clements Center for Southwest Studies
Result: winner
National Book Award (Finalist)
2020
Work: Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: finalist
Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
2021
Work: Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Organization: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Result: winner
Bancroft Prize
2021
Work: Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Organization: Columbia University
Result: winner
Guggenheim Fellowship
2022
Organization: Guggenheim Foundation
Result: fellowship

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816

1999 scholarly history / monograph

A scholarly account of eighteenth-century transformations in the Deep South driven by the Creek Indians' accumulation of cattle and slaves, analyzing property, power, and social change.

colonial and Native American historyproperty and powersocial transformation

Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family

2005 scholarly history

Explores how racial hierarchy, law, and culture affected eighteenth-century mixed-race families in the Native American South.

race and familylegal historySouthern history

West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776

2014 popular history

Re-examines the year 1776 by focusing on western regions and Native American revolutionary actions, offering multiple perspectives on the American Revolution.

American RevolutionNative American historymultiple perspectives

Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory

2020 public history / popular history

A multilayered account of the expulsions of Native Americans from the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, examining political and economic contexts.

Indian Removal Actforced displacementpolicy and economics

Bibliography

  • A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816
  • Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family
  • West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776
  • Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory

Style & Themes

Literary Style
archive-based scholarly narrativeaccessible prose connecting academic research to public history
Recurring Motifs
emphasis on Native American perspectivesrelation of property and legal regimes to social changeinterplay of state policy and economics

Legacy

An influential scholar in Native American and early American history who has provided new perspectives on forced removals and dispossession through works aimed at both academic and general audiences.

Academic Societies

  • Southern Historical Association
  • American Society for Ethnohistory

Archives

  • University of Georgia Special Collections (potential related holdings)

Trivia

  • Created the interactive map "The Invasion of America" documenting Native American land cessions.
  • Named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2022.
  • Born in San Francisco; teaches and researches at the University of Georgia.